Virginia lawyer Jas Easterly knows a thing or two about laws in the Washington D.C., metro area, and he’s noticed one that President Donald Trump keeps ignoring.
Trump is set to begin building his “triumphal arch” in Arlington, Virginia, in the coming weeks, but there hasn’t been a “consent order” requiring the National Park Service (NPS) to publish a notice and inform the courts 14 days before construction or demolition.
The requirement is a small step in the process of building, tearing down or profoundly renovating, but it’s one that Trump’s administration consistently skips.
“Didn’t the Government make a commitment to provide 14 days’ notice prior to construction?” asked Easterly when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced construction was to begin on the arch. “Does the 14-day commitment cover excavation and other site-disturbing work, or only ‘construction’ of the arch itself?”
A follower asked if Burgum’s tweet qualified as public notice, but Easterly explained that it isn’t “the notice the consent order requires.”
“I don’t see a notice for either,” he added in a thread on BlueSky.
NOTUS reporter Jenna Monnin wrote on Thursday, “In April, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the NPS to provide the court with at least 14 days’ notice prior to ‘commencement of construction, or demolition in preparation for construction.'”
“Consistent with Defendant’s statements, Defendant NPS shall not authorize construction of an arch on Memorial Circle to begin before NPS has published a notice stating its authorization on its Planning, Environmental and Public Comment website (https://parkplanning.nps.gov),” she demanded.
The lawsuit came from the organization Public Citizen, which represented three Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian, who believe that the arch blocks the view of Arlington National Cemetery from Washington.
NPS claimed that it does block Arlington, but that it will give a whole new view through the arch. They’re also demanding that the arch be 250 feet tall to represent the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
“Has NPS actually filed the required 14-day notice?” asked Easterly. “Because if it hasn’t, this is a very clean factual story. If the administration says excavation is about to begin, that is an extraordinary juxtaposition. The government’s filing yesterday is NOT the notice, and I find no docket entry identified as a notice under the April 8 consent order, and nothing in the current docket indexing that says NPS is providing the required 14-day notice of commencement of construction/pre-construction demolition.”
He noted that the NPS’s Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) page now has the Environmental Assessment and FONSI, Finding of No Significant Impact. However, he explained that “this FONSI does not constitute a final decision or approval for the project.”
Easterly made it clear, “Remember, the order says NPS can’t authorize construction until notice with authorization is posted on PEPC.”