A federal appellate court ruled Wednesday the Purple Line can move forward despite an ongoing lawsuit against the project.
The ruling gives Maryland a green light to go after $900 million in federal grants for the $5.6 billion construction project — funding the Trump administration has proposed cutting, according to The Washington Post, though the administration has said in budget documents it is still considering federal funding for the Purple Line.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit restored the Purple Line’s environmental approval after a lower court had previously revoked it. In a 2016 decision, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon said the Federal Transit Administration had failed to take a “hard look” at how Metrorail’s ridership and safety issues would impact the 16.2-mile light rail line. Leon ordered that a supplemental environmental impact statement be produced”as expeditiously as possible,” but refused to let the project move forward while that study was underway.
“The State of Maryland has satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal,” the appeals court’s panel of three judges wrote in the ruling.
The ruling is tied to an anti-Purple Line lawsuit filed by a Chevy Chase citizens group, Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail, that has been in the courts since 2014, as we previously reported.
Wednesday’s ruling means Maryland may move forward while continuing to appeal Leon’s earlier decisions.