Judge Clears Way For UFC Fight At White House

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UFC Freedom 250 will go forward at the White House this weekend after a federal judge turned away a last-ditch attempt to shut it down.

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta denied an emergency request to halt the event on June 12. He found that the two people who sued could not show a substantial likelihood of standing, according to the court order. Mehta also ruled they failed to prove they would suffer irreparable harm.

Susan Douglas and Paul Romano are both longtime Washington-area residents represented by the Public Integrity Project. They asked the court to stop organizers from staging the fights on the South Lawn. Douglas and Romano also sought to block related activities at the Lincoln Memorial, the order states. They argued the event broke National Park Service rules, skipped a required environmental review, and put up a structure without congressional sign-off. (RELATED: REPORT: Federal Lawsuit Looking To Stop UFC Freedom 250 From Taking Place On White House’s South Lawn)

Mehta also faulted the plaintiffs for waiting too long to sue, noting they filed nearly two weeks after construction became visible even though the fight date had been public for months, the order states.


Justice Department lawyers urged the court to stay out of it, telling the judge the pair had other options. “It would be easy enough to simply avert their gazes for the weekend,” they wrote, according to Fox News. “Instead, they seek to enlist the power of a federal court to impose their idiosyncratic preferences on the rest of the country and ruin an event designed to celebrate the United States of America.”

The White House welcomed the decision once it came down. “The court rightly rejected an untimely and frivolous effort to halt the historic UFC event hosted to honor the 250th anniversary of our Nation,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to ESPN.

The UFC has poured more than $60 million into the production, the order states. Fighters take the South Lawn on June 14, which is also President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, following a Friday press conference at the Lincoln Memorial and Saturday weigh-ins at the Ellipse. A two-day fan fest runs alongside on the Ellipse, according to ESPN.