Kennedy family seeks to intervene in fight to block Trump arch

Jimmy Jenkins, Bloomberg News on Nov 10, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Members of the Kennedy family are seeking to intervene in the legal fight to block construction of a triumphal arch in Washington championed by President Donald Trump, saying it would interfere with memorial gravesites of family members — including JFK’s eternal flame.

In a motion filed Tuesday, attorneys representing the children and grandchildren of the late President John F. Kennedy’s brothers, Robert and Edward Kennedy, asked a federal judge to join a lawsuit seeking to block the proposed monument.

Plans for the “Independence Arch” show it would be 250-feet-tall, and constructed in Memorial Circle, obstructing a sight line between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, according to the filing. The three Kennedy brothers are buried at the cemetery.

The arch would block the line of sight between the Kennedy gravesites, including the eternal flame, and the Arlington Memorial Bridge, “and will permanently cast a shadow over the graves of servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country,” according to the filing. The eternal flame is a memorial to John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while president in 1963.

A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the motion to intervene.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan last week temporarily blocked the Trump administration from “initiating, making, or otherwise effectuating any construction, excavation, demolition, land-disturbance, utility- installation, or roadway-closure activity, or any other construction-related activity” in connection with the arch for two weeks.

Chutkan has consolidated lawsuits from Virginia and the District of Columbia and another filed by a group of Vietnam War veterans who are challenging construction of the arch at that location.