Plans to overhaul a historic Washington golf course hit another legal roadblock after a federal judge extended an order stopping the Trump administration from pressing ahead with renovations she has already criticized as damaging and unlawful.
US District Judge Ana Reyes, who is overseeing a lawsuit raising environmental and historic-preservation objections to the project, kept in place a court order blocking President Donald Trump’s renovation of the East Potomac Golf Course — one of several efforts Mr Trump is pursuing to reshape landmarks in the US capital.
“The court still does not speak for the trees,” Judge Reyes wrote in an order filed in the district court for the District of Columbia. “It speaks only for the rule of law.”
Her order continued to bar the government from “removing or damaging additional trees” on the course.
It also required the government to give ten business days of written advance notice before making any “irreparable modification” at the park while the case remains pending.
Mr Trump, in an online post late yesterday, said the government would appeal and insisted his administration would still move forward on its timetable, writing that it would close “the East Potomac Golf Course Site as scheduled on November 15th in order to renovate and rebuild”.
The renewed order follows a sharp rebuke Judge Reyes delivered two weeks earlier, when she faulted Justice Department lawyers in the case that seeks to halt the Trump administration’s takeover of the historic course.
She said it was “inexcusable” that hundreds of trees had been removed from the course during the prior weekend.
Stumps of large trees are seen on the golf course after they were cut down earlier this month
Even after the judge’s directive that work could not proceed without prior notice to the court, Mr Trump said last week that his administration would begin renovation work immediately. He also attacked Judge Reyes, calling her a “lunatic”.
The DC Preservation League filed suit in February to stop the takeover, arguing it would violate environmental laws and “irreparably destroy a priceless piece of American history”.
In her latest order, Judge Reyes said the government had asked her to disregard Mr Trump’s public statements about the renovation plans.
“Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting president,” she wrote.
“This started as a case about golf … But it has become much more,” the judge added.
“It now forces the court to reconcile assertions by President Donald J. Trump with the sworn testimony of multiple government employees and the argument of senior DOJ attorneys.”
