Judge Reyes is right to block Trump at east Potomac Golf links

By Adele Rutherford · Reporting from Atlanta · October 27, 2026

After the administration cut down hundreds of trees without notice, Judge Ana Reyes blocked further alterations to the golf course to protect the rule of law.

The Trump administration is wrong. This is not a dispute over the aesthetics of a golf course or the skill of a judge. It is a dispute over whether the executive branch may lie to a federal court to bypass the law. When the government tells a judge it will not act, and then acts in the dark of a holiday weekend, it forfeits its claim to discretionary trust. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes was correct to issue her preliminary injunction. She did not do so to save a few trees, but to save the process.

The Friday afternoon ambush

The facts of the tree removal are a study in tactical avoidance. According to CBS News, the government provided notice on the Friday of a holiday weekend. In a single day, the government removed nearly 430 trees. Judge Reyes later determined the government removed over 500 healthy, non-invasive trees.

The administration tried to call this an "unrelated maintenance effort." Judge Reyes did not buy it. She found the removal was part of a larger renovation plan. She noted that the government appeared to set the timing and the late notice to stop the plaintiffs from seeking court intervention. This is a procedural ambush. It is the opposite of the "good faith" required in federal litigation.

The government then tried to move the fight from the facts to the person. They asked Judge Reyes to recuse herself. They claimed she showed "open hostility" and "histrionics." They argued she disregarded "Article III constraints on judicial authority." This is a standard play. When the record is ugly, the administration attacks the referee. Judge Reyes rejected the request. She noted that this was not a "sudden onset bias."

The statutory wall

The D.C. Preservation League sued under the National Environmental Policy Act. This law, known as NEPA, requires federal agencies to analyze the environmental impacts of their projects before they act. The League argues the administration failed to do this. This is not a new fight. The D.C. Preservation League's effort is grounded in a long history of equity proceedings and land claims regarding the Potomac River flats dating back to the late nineteenth century.

The administration argues the project is "totally 'as of right.'" President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the ruling is "unconstitutional." He claimed a judge with no expertise in "Golf, Architecture, Landscaping, [or] Construction" has no right to demand notice. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the judicial role. A judge does not need to be a greenskeeper to know if a statutory review was skipped.

This clash mirrors the mechanism in West Virginia v. EPA. In that case, the Supreme Court limited the authority of an executive agency to unilaterally redefine its regulatory requirements without clear congressional authorization. Here, the administration attempted to unilaterally bypass the NEPA review process. Both instances involve the court stepping in to stop an agency from treating a statute as a suggestion.

The price of lost credibility

The 70-page opinion does more than block chainsaws. It imposes a leash. CNN reports that the administration must now provide 10 days' notice before making irreversible alterations to the course design.

Judge Reyes wrote that she is "not the Lorax" and does not "speak for the trees." She speaks for the rule of law. The tragedy of this case is that it forced the court to reconcile the President's assertions with the sworn testimony of his own employees. Judge Reyes noted that "rarely, if ever" has the Department of Justice urged a court not to believe the sitting president.

The administration's defense was a failure of process. They described the plan as "cleaning up" the course. Judge Reyes found these claims not to be credible. When the government loses its credibility, the court must replace trust with mandates. The 10-day notice requirement is the price the government pays for lying to the bench.

President Trump calls the judge a "crazed lunatic." He vows to close the course on November 15. He believes that power is the ability to act without permission. But in a constitutional system, power is the ability to act within the law. The administration may eventually build its "World Class Championship Golf Course," but they will not do it by treating the federal courts as an inconvenience.

The administration has treated the National Environmental Policy Act as a hurdle to be jumped rather than a law to be followed. By lying about the nature of the tree removals, the Department of Justice damaged the capital stock of its own legitimacy. The court's injunction is not an act of "hostility" or "bias." It is a necessary correction. The government cannot claim the protection of the separation of powers while simultaneously ignoring the statutory obligations that define that separation.

Judge Reyes is right to block Trump at east Potomac Golf links

The Friday afternoon ambush

The statutory wall

The price of lost credibility

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