A federal lawsuit filed on June 6 seeks an emergency court order to stop an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event from being held on White House grounds next week.
The UFC event was scheduled to take place on the White House South Lawn on June 14, which falls on Flag Day and President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, which organizers said was part of celebrations for America’s 250th independence.
The lawsuit, filed by two Virginia residents, alleged that the decision by the Department of Interior and the National Park Service to authorize the UFC event to be hosted at the White House was unlawful.
The plaintiffs said the move violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands and that the venue construction lacked both congressional authorization and environmental review.
“The event is neither ‘for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence’ nor, crucially, being ‘planned, organized, and executed’ by the federal government,” the plaintiffs said in the suit.
“Rather, UFC Freedom 250 is a private, for-profit sporting event being ‘planned, organized, and executed’ by the UFC, its broadcast partners, and its advertisers, not by the federal government.”
They argued that the event failed to meet the requirements for authorization under the National Park Service’s temporary rule enacted for the 250th anniversary, which allows the agency to disregard its permit rules and authorize “special events planned, organized, and executed” by federal agencies.
This story is developing and will be updated with additional details.
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