U.S. Attorney Yaakov Roth, representing the Trump administration, said that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the organization suing to stop the build, lacks the standing to sue.
He told the judges that no one has the right to stop the build at this point and said the group needed to have attempted to stop it before the bulldozers started their demolition.
Judge Patricia Millett then asked Roth if such thinking applies even if people have a personal connection to a site. Roth said, “That’s correct.”
Millett then attempted to stretch Roth’s argument to its most extreme conclusion:
“If the government decides very quickly to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty, the people whose ancestors — that was the first thing they saw coming to this country, but the government moved too fast, nothing can be done?” she asked.
Roth’s response: “I think that’s right, yes.”
Although Millett’s question about bulldozing Lady Liberty was intended as a hypothetical, Roth’s quick response in the affirmative ran over more than a few people on social media.