La Corte Suprema permite que la Casa Blanca continúe la construcción del salón de baile de $ 400 millones de Trump - AP News

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 Monday to let the White House keep building a $400 million ballroom on the grounds, overriding a lower court order that would have halted construction.

The decision replaces a temporary order that Chief Justice John Roberts had signed earlier this month, buying time before a court-ordered stop was set to kick in. Roberts broke with the majority and wrote publicly against the ruling, an unusual move for a sitting chief justice disagreeing with his own court's outcome.

The project itself is striking in scale. A ballroom addition to the White House would rank among the most expensive single construction projects ever attached to the executive residence. The lawsuits challenging it are still working through the courts, meaning Monday's ruling does not settle the underlying legal questions. It only clears the way for shovels to keep moving while those fights continue.

For people watching how presidential power gets exercised, the case matters beyond blueprints and budgets. A divided Supreme Court siding with the executive branch on a contested construction project, over the public objection of the chief justice, signals something about where the court's majority currently stands on executive authority. Legal observers will be parsing Roberts's written dissent for months.