Supreme Court allows Trump’s ballroom construction, but Roberts says project is ‘likely unlawful’ - Politico

The majority issued an unsigned order maintaining a hold on a federal appeals court ruling that had called for the project to stop. That appeals court had concluded the ballroom construction lacked approval from Congress. His language was pointed. Calling something "likely unlawful" from the bench is not a mild disagreement.

The split is unusual. Roberts broke from the court's conservative bloc to align with the liberal wing, and the five-justice majority kept the project moving forward anyway.

For people here in Lubbock, the practical effects of a White House renovation are distant, but the legal question underneath this ruling is not. The case turns on whether a president can direct construction at a federal building without congressional sign-off, a separation-of-powers question with implications well beyond one ballroom.

A chief justice publicly calling his own court's outcome likely unlawful, while still being outvoted, is the kind of moment that tends to show up in constitutional law classrooms for years.