Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejects bid to halt construction of Obama presidential library

• Amy Coney Barrett rejected a bid to halt construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
• The petition was brought by Save Our Parks, which disagrees with Jackson Park as the library site.
• Plans for the Obama center went through a four-year federal review process.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Friday rejected a bid to halt construction of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago’s historic Jackson Park.

A nonprofit organization called Protect Our Parks, which has long opposed the library being built on the site, asked the Supreme Court to temporarily bar construction.

The library’s opponents filed an emergency motion directed at Barrett, who is assigned to such handle matters for much of the Midwest.

Barrett, who was appointed to the court by former President Donald Trump in 2020, denied the motion without comment.

The suit asked that a writ of injunction be issued to block any additional groundbreaking for the center, as well as preventing trees from being cut in Jackson Park for the facility.

The organization’s website states that they support an Obama Presidential Center on the city’s South Side, preferably in the Washington Park neighborhood located west of the Jackson Park, but stress that the site should be “outside of a dedicated public park.”

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The applicants argued that the groundbreaking should be stopped because the trees in Jackson Park, which was designed in 1871 by the famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, are important for migratory birds, in addition to raising concerns about noise and air pollution.

With Barrett’s decision, the Supreme Court will let construction of the presidential center proceed as planned.

After a four-year federal review process, the Obama Presidential Center released their plans to break ground at the site earlier this year.

“The project serves as a catalyst for long-overdue investment in and around historic Jackson Park – creating a new destination to move visitors from hope to action, breathing new life into the park, and delivering amenities and economic benefits to the community the Obamas called home,” the Obama Foundation said in a February release.

Obama, who lived in the nearby Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago when he served as a US Senator, praised the progress of his library in a videotaped statement at the time.

“Michelle and I want to thank you for making this project even better – a space for the community, built in partnership with the community,” he said. “We know that by working together, we can unlock the South Side’s fullest potential – and help set up our city, our country, and our world for even better years still to come.”