Group sues to block Trump's blue resurfacing of Reflecting Pool
A nonprofit group is suing to block the Trump administration's blue resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in D.C. by The Cultural Landscape Foundation, an education and advocacy nonprofit organization, seeks to immediately stop the resurfacing until the Trump administration complies with federal law, including the National Historic Preservation Act. The suit names the Department of the Interior and National Park Service as defendants.
The group says that the Trump administration began the resurfacing, which is still ongoing, without proper congressional review and notification being completed.
"No consulting parties have been notified, engaged, or given an opportunity to participate," attorneys from the Washington Litigation Group, who are representing TCLF, wrote in a 26-page complaint on Monday. "This latest desecration of the reflecting pool is part of a pattern — epitomized most notably by the rush to destroy the East Wing of the White [House] — in which this Administration willfully disregards legal limits established by Congress."
"Every day that the resurfacing continues, the historic character of the Reflecting Pool is being further and fundamentally altered," the complaint continues.
In late April, Mr. Trump told reporters that his administration was planning to resurface the stone bottom of the pool in an "American flag blue," made of the "latest and greatest filament." Crews have been working to apply the new material to the surface of the drained pool in recent weeks.