State of Maryland v. Patel, 8:25-cv-03644-TDC. Complaint filed November 6, 2025, by Maryland and Prince George’s County. On August 17, 2026, Judge Chuang signed a 47-page memorandum opinion (ECF 32) and an order (ECF 33) granting plaintiffs’ motion for judgment on the pleadings on Counts 1, 2, and 6 and denying the government’s cross-motion.
The opinion’s own summary: the FBI and GSA July 2025 selections of the Ronald Reagan Building as the consolidated FBI headquarters “were not in accordance with law and exceeded statutory authority, in violation of the APA,” and the FBI’s related reprogramming decision “was arbitrary and capricious.” The court vacated and set aside those actions, entered a declaratory judgment, and issued a permanent injunction against implementing them. The opinion states that vacatur “would have the effect of reinstating the Greenbelt site as the selected site.”
The holding turns on the 2022 and 2023 appropriations site-selection provisions, which directed GSA to pick one of three short-list sites (Greenbelt, Landover, Springfield). The Reagan Building was not on that list. The court rejected the argument that the 2026 appropriations language ratified the switch or impliedly repealed the earlier site limits.
On August 19, 2026, defendants filed a notice of appeal (ECF 36). A district-court judgment on the pleadings is not the last word once an appeal is noted. Just the News (Kevin Killough, August 18) and Fox News reported the block; Breitbart added the donation frame the next day.