It would stand 250 feet tall, a slab of gray granite and gold with a shadow to match. On Tuesday, the Kennedy family arch lawsuit landed in federal court, and the complaint starts with that shadow.
For scale, the arch would rise more than twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial, per NPR. Nine members of the Kennedy family now want a judge to help block it. They filed a motion to intervene in two existing lawsuits in Washington, D.C.
Their argument is simple. The arch would cast a shadow over the graves of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, according to their lawyers at Democracy Defenders Fund. Among the plaintiffs are Rory Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy and Joseph Kennedy III, the Boston Globe reports. Norm Eisen is their lawyer.
One name is missing from the list. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s health secretary, did not join.
The stakes reach well beyond one family. Arlington draws thousands of visitors a day, and the arch would sit at the Memorial Bridge approach, a main route into Washington from Virginia. If it goes up, a view that millions of Americans know changes for good. It also tests a bigger question: can a president build a monument this size without a vote from Congress? The family says no and calls the project unlawful. Trump’s name is landing on Washington landmarks fast, as the Kennedy Center board’s vote to shut its main building shows.
In the filing, the family wants the court to set aside the arch’s authorization and stop construction. They say the arch would be most imposing in the early morning, when relatives traditionally visit. Their filing says it would “fundamentally alter the experience of visiting the gravesites” and amount to “permanent denigration.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post says its own analysis found the arch would shadow JFK’s eternal flame and memorial. That analysis is the Post’s alone, and we have not verified it.
The family also says the arch would block the sightline from Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Eternal Flame. It would also interrupt the line between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington, a view they say designers created to symbolize national unity after the Civil War.
In a statement, Rory Kennedy and Maxwell Kennedy said Americans from every corner of the country visit Arlington to honor those who served and sacrificed, CBS News reports.
The Kennedys are joining a pile-on. Three Vietnam veterans and a historian, represented by Public Citizen, filed the earlier suit. They argue Trump lacked congressional approval, AOL reports. D.C. and Virginia have sued too, and the Arlington County Board has a case pending in Virginia federal court.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan barred the administration from breaking ground for 14 days. That window runs out around mid-November.
Also last week, the National Capital Planning Commission, which Trump has stacked with allies, voted to approve the plans. The White House calls the project “Independence Arch,” part of the nation’s 250th anniversary plans, with gold ornamentation and gray granite between the Lincoln Memorial and the cemetery.
Courts have been busy with presidential power elsewhere, too. One justice has argued that a 6-3 immunity ruling should be overturned.
Two things to watch next. First, whether the judge lets the Kennedys into the case at all, since she has not granted the motion. Second, what Chutkan does before her order expires: extend it, or issue a preliminary injunction.
Trump has said he wants the arch finished before he leaves office in two years. A courtroom full of lawsuits, and now a famous family, makes that deadline look a lot less certain.
