Judge Reyes halts Trump after a Friday shortcut at East Potomac
By Adele Rutherford · Reporting from Atlanta ·
By clearing hundreds of trees at East Potomac Golf Links under a late Friday notice, the Trump administration attempted to evade judicial review, drawing a necessary halt from Judge Reyes.
The Trump administration is wrong because it treated a court order as a suggestion. In the law, process is not a hurdle to be cleared; it is the boundary of power. When the government uses a Friday afternoon filing to blindside a judge and a plaintiff, it is not "efficiency." It is an attempt to create a fact on the ground that cannot be undone. By felling hundreds of trees at the East Potomac Golf Links before the court could act, the administration did not just clear land. It attempted to clear the court's jurisdiction.
The Friday afternoon shortcut
The dispute centers on a municipal course. The Trump administration wants to convert it into a professional complex. According to Golf Digest, the work began without congressional approval.
In July, US District Judge Ana Reyes established a rule. She ruled that work could continue if the government provided advance notice of major work. This included the removal of more than 10 trees at a time. This is a standard procedural safeguard. It ensures that the D.C. Preservation Society, which sued in the summer, can seek preliminary relief. Preliminary relief is a temporary court order to prevent immediate and irreparable harm before a full trial.
The government followed the letter of the rule but violated its spirit. At 4:55 p.m. on Friday, the government filed a notice. It stated it planned to remove 169 trees on Saturday and 90 trees later. Here, the government used the clock to ensure no one could object until the saws were already running.
The Saturday felling
The result was a weekend of rapid destruction. The National Park Service and a contractor, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, moved in on Saturday. The Guardian reports that the National Park Service claimed it was cutting 500 trees that did not contribute to the historic landscape.
The actual numbers tell a different story. A lawyer for the Trump administration acknowledged in court that at least 430 trees were felled.
Judge Reyes did not mince words on Monday. She noted that she had trusted the government not to do precisely what it had done. She ordered a 24-hour halt to all work, including routine maintenance. She threatened contempt of court proceedings if the order was violated by "even two seconds." This is the correct response to a party that treats the court as an obstacle to be managed rather than an authority to be obeyed.
The cost of executive discretion
The administration will likely argue that the National Park Service has broad discretion to maintain federal lands. They will claim that a Friday notice satisfies the court's requirement. This is the strongest case they can make. They will argue that the court is impermissibly infringing on executive branch discretion.
That argument fails because the government agreed to the notice requirement. When the executive branch accepts a court's condition to continue work, that condition becomes a binding obligation. The executive branch cannot use claims of privilege to evade a court's specific order for the production of evidence. This is the mechanism at the heart of United States v. Nixon. In that case, the Supreme Court held that presidential privilege does not override the demands of due process.
The government's conduct here was not a misunderstanding. It was a calculated move to render the lawsuit moot by destroying the subject matter.
Judge Reyes has a known intolerance for those who attack constitutional systems. She previously rebuked a whistleblower for an attack on constitutional democracy. She is applying that same standard to the government. She has summoned Kevin Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, to testify. She wants to know who ordered the work and why the court was misled.
The administration attempted to use the weekend to bypass the law. They found that Judge Reyes does not believe the law takes a break on Saturdays. The government has cost its credibility. Now, it must pay the price in a courtroom where the only currency is the record.
Sources
- The Guardian: Judge halts tree removal at Washington golf course Trump eyes for expansion
- The Washington Post: Judge halts tree removal at D.C. golf course that Trump has proposed overhauling
- Golf Digest: Judge goes scorched earth after Trump Administration removes at least 430 trees from East Potomac in a single day