Kennedys say Trump's arch would block the view between Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House

Suit alleges Park Service and Interior Department authorized arch without congressional approval

The towering, 250-foot gilded arch that President Donald Trump proposes to build near Arlington National Cemetery would block the view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, according to a lawsuit filed by nine members of the Kennedy family political dynasty. The two landmarks, the complaint notes, “were designed to face each other to represent national reunification after the Civil War.”

The lawsuit argues that the National Park Service and the US interior department authorized construction of the arch without the required congressional approval. It asks the court to set aside the authorization and block construction of the arch.

The Justice Department recently said construction of the arch, which is modeled on Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, would not be completed until after the end of Trump’s second term.

The case is the latest legal challenge to the project. On 6 November, US district judge Tanya Chutkan blocked the Trump administration from beginning any construction work on the arch for 14 days.

“A towering arch casting shadows across the graves of our father, mother, and uncles, as well as the graves of so many who have served our country, would also cast a shadow over our democratic principles, undermining the safeguards established by our elected representatives to protect this hallowed ground for generations to come,” two of the plaintiffs, Rory Kennedy and Maxwell Kennedy, said in a statement issued on behalf of the family.

The family says the arch would cast a shadow over their relatives’ graves. The complaint describes a triumphal structure topped with a Lady Liberty-like winged figure.

It states that the arch would “obstruct the clear sightline of the Kennedy Gravesites” and “fundamentally alter the experience of visiting” the family’s memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, and argues that the project risks “permanently diminishing these memorials.”

“This action is about protecting sacred spaces that belong to the American people,” the Kennedys said in their statement, noting that the plaintiffs’ uncles, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy, and the plaintiffs’ parents, Robert and Ethel Kennedy, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

“We believe Donald Trump has violated the laws and procedures established by Congress to protect this most sacred national memorial,” the family said, adding that the action was intended to protect both the memorial site and the experience of visiting the graves.

Trump has claimed that the arch will be converted into a “top-grade military complex” replete with drone and ammunition storage space and customized sniper facilities on the roof and plaza.

Trump appeared with a model of the proposed arch at the White House in October last year, in a photograph credited to Jonathan Ernst of Reuters.

The Guardian reported that the arch is one of several projects around Washington that Trump has undertaken as he remakes the city, from renovating one of its storied public golf courses to threatening to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and that those projects could soon face greater scrutiny after Democrats gained control of Congress.