Updated Sept. 5, 2026, 8:05 p.m. ET
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday, Sept. 4, to provide 48 hours’ notice before moving forward with work on the site of a planned 250-foot arch near Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that the administration must inform the court “before engaging in any activity on Memorial Circle other than on-site information gathering” to identify underground cultural artifacts.
Chutkan reinforced her order a day after Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced plans on Sept. 3 to break ground at the site of the arch in the coming days.
“We are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck, at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery,” Burgum wrote on X. “This will be one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture, honoring the history and significance of Arlington Cemetery and befitting the most powerful Capital in the World.”
The proposed arch, one of several projects Trump has launched in an effort to change the landscape of the nation’s capital, has been controversial from the start. A group of three veterans and a historian filed a lawsuit in February to oppose the project.
The plaintiffs asked Chutkan on Sept. 4 to issue a 14-day restraining order to block the Trump administration from “taking any steps to construct or to direct or facilitate construction of any structure in Memorial Circle.”
Despite Burgum’s announcement, the government argued in a court filing that the planned activity at the site of the proposed arch is standard archaeological survey work. The administration intends to mechanically excavate four test pits no earlier than Sept. 21 and the land is expected to be restored by Oct. 31, per the filing.
“This activity is not construction, or demolition in preparation for construction, of an arch,” the government said.
The proposed arch is also awaiting final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, which would need to grant an exception to a 130-foot building height limit.
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