A federal judge refused to halt the UFC Freedom 250 cage fights set for this weekend at the White House, despite a lawsuit that called the event a “volcano of corruption” that will mark “the first private, for-profit sporting event ever held on White House grounds.”

In a ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee, said he rejected the plaintiffs’ emergency application because they failed “to establish both a substantial likelihood of standing and irreparable harm, and because the equities and public interest weigh against emergency relief.”

The case was brought by activist Susan Douglas and Vietnam War veteran Paul Romano, who challenged the use of the Lincoln Memorial chamber and the South Lawn of the White House. Represented by the Public Integrity Project, they alleged that the event runs afoul of federal regulations and isn’t the purely patriotic display that President Donald Trump and UFC head Dana White have portrayed.

The plaintiffs said it will “feature million-dollar VIP packages, brand placement opportunities adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial, and an exclusive broadcast on the President’s favored streaming service.” The streaming service they referred to is Paramount Plus, noting in their complaint that the UFC’s broadcast partner, Paramount Skydance, is run by Trump allies Larry and David Ellison and “has decided that no American will be able to take in this ‘celebration of America’ without first paying $8.99 plus tax for a Paramount Plus streaming subscription.”

Calling the event a “volcano of corruption,” the plaintiffs said that it “will mark an inflection point in American history.” They added, “The images it generates will one day appear in the history books — and not in the chapters about times remembered fondly.”

White said the goal is to “celebrate the 250th birthday of America” in putting on the fights among professional mixed martial artists on the South Lawn of the White House in a massive structure called “the Claw.”

The plaintiffs noted that the event coincides with Trump’s 80th birthday on Sunday and that White is a close friend and ally of the president. They said Trump is giving White and his company “what none have enjoyed before: unfettered access to the White House and Lincoln Memorial to stage a private, for-profit sports event, with all the promotional and branding opportunities that accompany such access.”

Douglas and Romano added that Trump stands to benefit directly, citing reporting that earlier this spring he bought stock in the company that owns the UFC.

They said White “has good reason to stick to his story” about the event being a celebration of America because, they observed, federal law “tightly restricts private use of the national capital’s most sacred monumental spaces, which are national parklands.”

The Trump administration said the plan is to hold a press conference at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday; a ceremonial weigh-in at the Ellipse on Saturday, followed by a concert headlined by the Zac Brown Band; and seven UFC matches to be held on the White House South Lawn on Sunday.

Defending the event, the administration called it a “collaboration” with the UFC and called the suit meritless, arguing, among other things, that the plaintiffs lack legal standing to bring the case in the first place. Rather than being truly harmed, officials said, the plaintiffs sought to “seek out that which offends their sensibilities, just so they can complain about it.”

The administration said the suit’s last-minute nature alone should defeat it, calling the timing “inexcusable” because “these events were publicly announced almost a year ago; the dates were confirmed by the White House three months ago; and site preparations have been publicly visible for weeks.” The plaintiffs insisted they “acted promptly as soon as their injuries accrued and the full scope of the event’s lawlessness became clear.”

The plaintiffs alleged that they suffered “aesthetic injuries” from the Claw’s construction and that Douglas in particular “will suffer aesthetic injury if the UFC Freedom 250 weigh-ins are permitted to occur at the Lincoln Memorial.” Douglas said she “regularly travels to the affected areas for protests and has specific plans to visit on four occasions between now and the conclusion of UFC Freedom 250, including on the nights of both the weigh-ins, June 13, and the June 14 fights.”

Romano said he “has no choice but to see the offending aesthetics, as he must frequently travel through the area for work [as a part-time ride-share driver]. He therefore has no choice but to observe the desecration of these sites.” As a Vietnam War veteran, he said he suffers “the dignitary and emotional harms that come from national memorials being used for corrupt purposes.”

But in his ruling on Friday, Mehta said the plaintiffs couldn’t show they were “directly affected” by the government’s actions.

“Even if Plaintiffs had established standing, the court still would deny emergency relief because Plaintiffs have not proven irreparable harm,” the judge went on, adding that their “unreasonable delay in filing suit” further hurt their claim. He said they waited more than two weeks after visible preparations commenced at the White House to seek emergency relief.

Mehta also said that the “for-profit elements of UFC Freedom 250 have long been known” and that the “absence of congressional approval and a NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] review is not new information.”

On the environmental front, the judge said that the plaintiffs failed to show any harm that would come from the press conference and face-offs at the Lincoln Memorial, and that the UFC estimates it will spend $700,000 to remediate grass damaged by the Claw on the South Lawn.

The judge concluded that the risk of any significant environmental damage “therefore appears remote,” whereas the harms on the government side include the time, effort and money that have gone into planning the event, as well as the interests of spectators, remote viewers and the millions of dollars the UFC and related organizations have spent.

“The potential loss of those dollars resulting from a last-minute, court-ordered stoppage cannot be ignored,” the judge wrote.