Kennedy family joins US lawsuits to block Trump’s ‘unlawful’ arch plan

What the report says

Members of the Kennedy family have joined legal efforts to stop President Donald Trump’s planned 76-metre “triumphal arch” in Washington, DC, filing a motion on Tuesday to intervene in two federal lawsuits already seeking to block the project. The plaintiffs are the children and grandchildren of former senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, and they argue the monument would interfere with the Kennedy gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery and the nearby Eternal Flame honoring John F. Kennedy.

According to Al Jazeera’s report, the family says the arch would change the experience of visiting the cemetery and would disrupt a carefully preserved view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House across the Memorial Bridge. Their lawyers, led by veteran Washington attorney Norm Eisen and the Democracy Defenders Fund, also contend that federal agencies approved the granite-and-gold design without the congressional approval they say is required.

The Kennedy family’s filing adds to a broader set of challengers that includes Vietnam War veterans, a historian, and local governments in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Arlington County. A federal judge has already temporarily barred the administration from beginning construction for 14 days. The case is part of Trump’s wider push to reshape parts of the capital, a plan that has drawn heightened scrutiny amid other proposed changes.