Judge Royce Lamberth Blocks Interior Stop-Work Order, Allows Sunrise Wind Construction

A federal judge has temporarily lifted a federal pause that halted work on the Sunrise Wind offshore project, clearing the way for construction to resume while litigation proceeds. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on Feb. 2, 2026 issued a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the Dec. 22, 2025 stop-work and lease-suspension order that had frozen activity across multiple East Coast projects.

The ruling takes immediate effect and allows Ørsted-owned Sunrise Wind to restart activities that were halted under the December order. Sunrise Wind said it will “assess how to work with the USA administration to reach a timely and lasting resolution. Construction work is expected to resume as soon as practicable.” Sunrise Wind is an offshore New York project sized at 924 MW, estimated to power roughly 600,000 homes, and its restart carries tangible implications for local ports, vessel schedules, and workforce deployment in Suffolk County and the broader Long Island region.

Judge Lamberth found the administration’s suspension decision legally flawed, characterizing the action as “arbitrary and capricious” after reviewing classified material filed in camera. The court concluded that plaintiffs had shown the irreparable-harm standard, noting the risk that halting work would lead to the loss of specialized installation vessels and a resulting “cascade of delays” that could prevent the project from meeting contractual and schedule obligations. The injunction reflects the court’s judgment that the balance of equities favors allowing construction to proceed while the government’s underlying claims are litigated.

The administration had cited undisclosed “national security concerns,” and materials described in filings included a “classified Department of War study alleging that turbine structures cause interference with military radar systems.” Those materials were not made public in the record summarized by the court, and the decision leaves those national-security assertions to be adjudicated in ongoing proceedings rather than to serve as an immediate block on construction.

Sunrise Wind’s reinstatement is the fifth consecutive federal decision permitting a previously paused East Coast offshore wind project to resume work under preliminary injunctive relief. Similar rulings have allowed Revolution Wind, Empire Wind 1, Vineyard Wind 1, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind to proceed despite the December suspension order, underscoring a pattern in which courts have weighed near-term economic and scheduling harms against executive-branch security claims.

For Suffolk County residents, the decision matters for near-term economic activity at local harbors, the jobs tied to turbine installation and vessel operations, and the longer-term trajectory for regional clean energy supply. With litigation continuing in federal court, contractors, port operators, and municipal officials should expect project crews to return to work while legal teams press their claims. The most consequential next steps will be whether the administration pursues the underlying case to a final judgment and whether the court’s review of classified material is supplemented by a public opinion that clarifies how national-security evidence was weighed against commercial harms.