Lawsuit aims to stop UFC Freedom 250 on White House lawn

Two Virginia residents have filed a lawsuit aimed to stop UFC Freedom 250, the MMA event set to take place on the White House South Lawn as part of the America250 campaign celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary.

The lawsuit, as reported by Jack Dunn in Variety, claims the event violates statutes laid out by the National Park Service that states “no special events of any sort, including any sporting events, may be held on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial. Nor may structures be erected on the South Lawn without express authorization from Congress and a thorough environmental review.”

UFC Freedom 250 is scheduled to take place on June 14, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s birthday, and be broadcast live on Paramount+.

The lawsuit notes that there are special exemptions to the National Park Service’s permitting requirements afforded to events sponsored by the federal government’s Semiquincentennial Commission, but argues UFC Freedom 250 is “a private, for-profit sporting event” being planned by “the UFC, its broadcast partners, and its advertisers,” not the bipartisan commission.

The suit also claims there are conflicts of interest involved in the event being hosted on the South Lawn, including that President Trump purchased stock in UFC parent company TKO earlier this year.

“[The event] is not in any material sense a ‘celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence’—it is, instead, a celebration of the UFC’s brand and the 80th anniversary of Donald Trump’s birth,” the suit reads, per Variety. “For these reasons, UFC Freedom 250 does not satisfy the strict conditions that must be satisfied for special semiquincentennial events to occur on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial.”

The likelihood that this suit succeeds in halting the event, which is set to take place in just a week’s time, seems low. However, it brings attention to the controversial nature of the event. Initially, it was thought that CBS would simulcast preliminary bouts of the card, though, per preliminary schedules, it seems the broadcast network has opted not to air any of the event on linear television.

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