Main: Memorial Circle, where President Donald Trump has proposed building an arch to commemorate the United States' 250th anniversary, the Arlington Memorial Bridge and the Lincoln Memorial are seen from the Washington Monument, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson). Left inset: President Donald Trump speaks about Dulles International Airport modernization, in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson). Right inset: U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia).
The DOJ failed to convince a judge to "dissolve" an order requiring 48 hours' notice before the administration takes any action at Memorial Circle to construct President Donald Trump's "Great Triumphal Arch."
The brief order from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Thursday responded to a DOJ motion, claiming the jurist's notice requirement had "already interfered with public safety and park maintenance" and halted "routine agency actions." The government asked the judge to either discard the requirement or clarify what she meant.
While Chutkan indicated her order was clear from the start, she decided to eliminate what "little doubt" there could have been.
"To remove what little doubt may exist, the Order is hereby CLARIFIED as follows: The words 'any activity' as used in the Order apply only to activities related to or in preparation for the construction of an arch on Memorial Circle," the judge said. "They do not apply to emergency response or routine park maintenance activities unrelated to the planned arch. Defendants' alternative request to dissolve the Order is DENIED."
The order was issued one day after the Washington Post reported that the administration is aware building the arch will have "adverse effects," and on the same day that a different judge required 30 days' notice before "any 'demolition' of the [Kennedy] Center's main building."
An artistic rendering of the arch-to-be shared by Secretary Doug Burgum (Department of the Interior).
Chutkan's handling of the case — and refusal to issue a temporary restraining order — is also consistent with how her fellow federal judge responded to complaints about the government's tree removal operations at East Potomac Park, even as the administration openly plans a "new" golf course there.
A Barack Obama appointee who presided over special counsel Jack Smith's since-tossed Jan. 6 prosecution of then-candidate Trump, Chutkan heard concerns from Vietnam War veterans Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes, Jon Gundersen and architectural historian Calder Loth who have tried to stave off a potential replay of the president's White House ballroom saga.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated in a Sept. 3 post that the administration is "preparing to start over the next two-week period" — and absent congressional authorization — "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."
President Donald Trump holds a picture of the proposed Triumphal Arch on the South Lawn during the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 6, 2026 (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images).
The plaintiffs' suit detailed that they "regularly visit the area" to "honor the service" of "comrades-in-arms who are buried" at Arlington National Cemetery.
The arch "will inflict profound harm […] by interfering with a symbolic landscape that holds great personal meaning" — "destroy[ing]" an "unobstructed view" of a sight line "designed to represent the unification of the Nation following the Civil War," the complaint said.