"These lands belong to the American people and are the final resting place for my family, friends and leathernecks," said Jimi Shaughnessy, NPCA Veterans Program Manager.
WASHINGTON – A group of advocacy, conservation and historic preservation organizations submitted a friend of the court brief in Lemmon v. Trump. The brief supports Public Citizen’s motion for the district court to stop unlawful construction of the Triumphal Arch on the doorstep of Arlington National Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of military service members and their families are buried. The groups include the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, DC Preservation League, and the American Institute of Architects. The groups argue the administration is plowing forward with its enormous Triumphal Arch without the required Congressional approval and that their actions would permanently desecrate the National Mall. The groups are represented by O’Melveny & Myers LLP and Cultural Heritage Partners.
The Trump administration’s failure to comply with numerous federal laws will have significant and permanent consequences for the National Mall, Arlington National Cemetery, and the surrounding national park landscape. The location, design, and scale of the proposed Arch threaten the deliberate and historic design of the Capital’s monumental core and will unlawfully encroach on more than 40 historic properties.
The groups stated their concerns:
“These lands belong to the American people and are the final resting place for my family, friends and leathernecks,” said Jimi Shaughnessy, NPCA Veterans Program Manager. “This process has been haphazard from the start, ignoring federal law, abandoning public input, and steamrolling a years-long approval process in a matter of months. Decisionmakers continue to rubber-stamp this egregious plan without any regard for the values and traditions that govern the National Mall and its surrounding landscapes. History will remember this attempt to trample sacred ground. And it will remember those who stood up and fought to protect it. This arch must not move forward.”
“Our preservation laws reflect a fundamental promise that the places that hold our shared history as Americans must be protected through careful planning, genuine public participation, and responsible stewardship,” said Brent Leggs, President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “We are proud to stand alongside the National Parks Conservation Association, and the broader preservation community, in defending that promise and protecting the extraordinary memorial landscape in and around Arlington National Cemetery from this disrespectful and broadly unpopular arch proposal.”
“The National Park Service’s own analysis found President Trump’s arch would directly harm numerous historic sites, including Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, and Memorial Bridge,” said Emily Thompson, Executive Director for the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “Even so, it issued a Finding of No Significant Impact, skipped a full Environmental Impact Statement, and never seriously looked at another location. That isn’t how the National Mall was built, and it isn’t what the law requires. Our members have spent careers protecting these places and we urge the court to intervene now, because this is not something you get to undo after the concrete is poured.”
“Displaying an extraordinary abuse of power, the National Park Service deliberately ignored the law and their requirement to develop design alternatives for the Triumphal Arch before shutting down the federally mandated review process in the face of massive public opposition to a project that would destroy the sacred, symbolic visual link between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington House,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, Founding President & CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.
“The Committee of 100 on the Federal City strongly urges the court to put a halt to the imminent construction of the 250-foot Triumphal Arch,” said Judy Chesser, Chair. “This Arch is inappropriate at this location because it has not been authorized by Congress, has not been advanced in accordance with the applicable laws and procedures and because it is a Triumphal Arch in a location that is dedicated to the renewed peace and reunion following the end of the Civil War.”
“The monuments of Washington, D.C., carry meaning far beyond any individual project,” said 2026 AIA President Illya Azaroff, FAIA. “Changes to this nationally significant landscape demand rigorous review and a deliberative, transparent, and legally sound process. Construction should be paused while the court determines whether these safeguards have been followed, before irreversible harm is done to a landscape that belongs to the nation.”
###
About the National Parks Conservation Association: Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its more than 1.9 million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nation’s most iconic and inspirational places for future generations. For more information, visit www.npca.org.
