Luke Broadwater
Washington: President Donald Trump’s planned 76-metre triumphal arch has come under legal fire on multiple fronts: from veterans, a historian and the governments of the District of Columbia, Virginia and Arlington County.
Now comes another legal challenge, from the storied Kennedy family.
Arguing that the arch, with its golden angels and flame on top, would cast a shadow on their relatives’ graves in Arlington National Cemetery, nine members of the Kennedy family moved to join existing litigation in Washington on Tuesday seeking to block the project.
They also say the arch would obstruct the intended sight line from the eternal flame at president John F. Kennedy’s gravesite, “destroying an essential element of the gravesite’s design.”
A judge in another case has temporarily paused construction of the arch – one of Trump’s favourite projects. If allowed to proceed, it would rise between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The filing claims that the placement would obstruct “a line of sight that was designed to represent the unification of the nation following the Civil War and that has existed for nearly a century”.
The arch “will permanently cast a shadow over plaintiffs’ parents’ graves and the graves of servicemen and -women who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country,” the filing added.
The plaintiffs are children or grandchildren of senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, the former president’s brothers, who are buried near him.
“A towering arch casting shadows across the graves of our father, mother and uncles, as well as the graves of so many who have served our country, would also cast a shadow over our democratic principles, undermining the safeguards established by our elected representatives to protect this hallowed ground for generations to come,” two of the plaintiffs, Rory Kennedy and Maxwell Kennedy, who are children of Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, said in a statement.
Trump’s project has received mixed news recently. On Thursday, the National Capital Planning Commission, led by the president’s allies, gave the project final approval, clearing the way for Trump to break ground. But immediately afterwards, a federal judge blocked construction.
The ruling by Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District Court for the District of Columbia halted construction for 14 days while legal challenges make their way through the court system.
In a 33-page opinion, Chutkan said the arch required congressional approval and that its construction could prove costly to both Virginia and the District of Columbia while disrupting traffic at the cemetery, one of the region’s most-visited sites.
The Kennedys’ lawsuit includes some of those same arguments but expands on the arch’s personal impact on the family.
“The gigantic proposed arch is an illegal interference with Arlington National Cemetery and the heroes remembered there, including at the gravesites and memorials of the Kennedy brothers and Ethel Kennedy,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Norman Eisen and Steve Jonas of the Democracy Defenders Fund, said in a statement.
“Only Congress has the constitutional power to authorise an intrusion of this magnitude. Today, members of the Kennedy family are joining with the other litigants in this case to protect this historic site – and to defend the rule of law and separation of powers.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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