The judge issued an order early Monday temporarily banning the felling of any more trees until at least Tuesday, and called an emergency hearing with just a few hours’ notice, despite it being a federal court holiday.
Reyes had already made clear she did not want to issue a restraining order in the case — “I’m not the Lorax. I don’t speak for the trees. I’m a judge,” she proclaimed at a hearing last month — but said the government’s actions left her no choice.
She summoned two National Park Service officials to testify virtually about the speed of the government’s actions. Both said the plan was developed last week, and one of them, deputy director of operations Frank Lands, said Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, asked him to start executing it.
“Yeah, a week is quick,” Lands said. “And I’m proud of the fact that we were able to move forward so quickly.”
Reyes ordered Wischer to testify at the hearing, but attorneys said they were unable to immediately track him down. The judge ordered him to appear in court Tuesday and kept the restraining order in place until then.
The other official who testified, National Mall and Memorial Parks Superintendent Kevin Griess, said workers had identified about 300 additional trees that still needed to be cut down.
The judge said at the end of the hearing that she felt the government had lied to her.
She noted that officials said the plan was essentially given the green light on Oct. 5, and the NPS comptroller filed a sworn document in court the next day, saying the agency had “no intention of commencing significant rehabilitation work until all applicable compliance requirements have been met.”
The plaintiffs in the case filed a lawsuit earlier this year, following reports that President Donald Trump planned to transform the century-old greens into a championship-style course.
The plaintiffs said they feared the administration would begin renovations without following proper procedures, citing in part the administration’s brutal destruction of the East Wing of the White House last year.
The debris from this demolition was then dumped on the course and used as a landfill.
Trump confirmed his plans for the site in an article on Truth Social in June, calling the current course “dilapidated, worn out, very dangerous and outdated.”
He said, “we have determined that this location can bring considerable success and prestige to Washington, D.C.” and that work “on the new course, which will proceed rapidly, will begin September 1.”
At the time, Reyes did not sign a restraining order, but asked the government to provide him and the plaintiffs’ attorneys with “sufficient notice before a major event occurs” so the case could be reviewed first, according to court filings. The government agreed.
The plaintiffs said they learned about this weekend’s massive tree felling about 12 hours before it happened, and that the government presented it as “maintenance activities” unrelated to Trump’s plans.
In a filing, the DOJ said the Interior Department was simply implementing recommendations from a 2019 “Cultural Landscape Report,” which aimed to restore the course closer to its original design.
The plaintiffs said in a court filing Sunday that Trump’s plan for the site “would require massive deforestation.”
“Defendants would have the Court believe that this unprecedented operation is merely the sudden and purely coincidental implementation of recommendations made in a Cultural Landscape Report seven years ago and that it has no relationship to the ongoing implementation of Washington’s National Plan,” they wrote.
“Even if the defendants were entitled to the benefit of the doubt, they are not entitled to a suspension of disbelief.”
Reyes, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, stressed that she was not happy about having to issue a restraining order, saying, “I don’t think the courts should play games with Parks and Recreation.” »
White House adviser Stephen Miller suggested in an article on X that the judge should stay out of it.
“I missed the part of the Constitutional Convention that gave federal judges responsibility for maintaining golf courses,” he wrote.
Gn headline
