\n Justice Department lawyers told US District Judge Amit P. Mehta that a ruling blocking the event, which is set to take place this coming weekend, would upend months of careful planning and unfairly burden a host of parties on the other side of the case, including President Donald Trump, thousands of spectators and more than a dozen athletes expected to participate in the event.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cNo one is holding plaintiffs in a jiu jitsu lock, forcing them to watch UFC Freedom 250 against their will. The public interest does not favor allowing them to exercise a heckler\u2019s veto, particularly at this late date,\u201d the government attorneys wrote in a court filing, referring to claims from the two plaintiffs that the event was causing them to suffer an \u201caesthetic injury,\u201d among other alleged harms.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cPlaintiffs\u2019 aesthetic interests are dwarfed by the amount of time, labor, and funding that has been invested in reliance upon an understanding that the planned activities will take place,\u201d they wrote. \u201cNot to mention the excitement of fans and service members planning to attend or watch remotely. Plaintiffs did nothing for months while these costs accrued. On the equities, this is not a close call.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The administration said any \u201cdelay\u201d in the event \u201ccould jeopardize the health of the 14 professional athletes involved in the event, as prolonged weight cutting can result in heat injuries, urinary and kidney problems including kidney failure, seizures, and hypovolemic shock.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n The lawsuit was filed Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of a Vietnam War veteran and a civic activist.\n <\/p>\n
\n Judges weighing emergency requests like the one at hand consider several factors, including whether doing so would is overly unfair to one side or the other and whether they think there\u2019s a public interest in halting a government action.\n <\/p>\n
\n But they also look at the strength of the claims being pushed in the underlying lawsuit. In the UFC case, which was brought last weekend, the plaintiffs contend that officials circumvented federal rules and regulations to allow the privately run event to take place on government property, including by allegedly violating a law requiring congressional approval before any structure can be erected on public land in Washington, DC.\n <\/p>\n