{"id":165063,"date":"2026-10-15T09:22:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/15\/you-did-your-absolute-worst-judge-delivers-epic-benchslap-over-trump-golf-course-chainsaw-spree\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:22:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:22:26","slug":"you-did-your-absolute-worst-judge-delivers-epic-benchslap-over-trump-golf-course-chainsaw-spree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/15\/you-did-your-absolute-worst-judge-delivers-epic-benchslap-over-trump-golf-course-chainsaw-spree\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You Did Your Absolute Worst\u2019: Judge Delivers Epic Benchslap Over Trump Golf Course Chainsaw Spree"},"content":{"rendered":"

For months, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes did something that has become an endangered species in federal courtrooms: she gave the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt. The case, DC Preservation League v. Department of the Interior<\/em>, was filed in February by the preservation group and two regulars at the East Potomac Golf Course. That\u2019s the public course on the Potomac that Donald Trump wants rebuilt as \u201cone of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World.\u201d The plaintiffs argue that the administration\u2019s plan to \u201creplace the existing Golf Course with an elite championship-style course,\u201d which it calls the Washington National Plan, violates the Administrative Procedure Act. Through months of hearings, Reyes said she had no interest in becoming the \u201coverseer of Parks and Rec.\u201d She repeatedly declined to enter an injunction because she trusted the government\u2019s lawyers to warn her before anything irreversible happened.<\/p>\n

Aw, Judge Reyes \u2014 you dear, sweet summer child! Presuming good faith of this<\/em> administration is a fool\u2019s errand. <\/p>\n

In a 21-page memorandum opinion<\/a> issued Tuesday, Reyes appears to have learned that lesson the hard way. The judge granted the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order. She also laid out exactly what happened while she was extending all that trust:<\/p>\n

\n

In five days\u2014from Monday, October 5, 2026, to Friday, October 9, 2026\u2014the Department of the Interior ordered, considered, and approved a plan to remove hundreds of trees from the East Potomac Golf Course. Early the next morning, the National Park Service had bulldozers on site. By day\u2019s end, it had removed about 430 healthy, non-invasive trees.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It would have been hundreds more, but it rained. The opinion credits \u201cthe vagaries of Mother Nature\u2014and then this Court\u2019s equitable powers\u201d with stopping the operation, in that order. Then Reyes summed up the government\u2019s position in a paragraph that reads like she decided complete sentences were too generous:<\/p>\n

\n

Breakneck speed to clear trees that posed no harm. The reason? Disputed. The budget? Unclear. The environmental impact? Unstudied. The urgency? None. Next steps: bulldoze hundreds more.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To see why the judge is this angry, look back at the summer. In July, plaintiffs asked for a formal notice order, and Reyes said no, explaining that she didn\u2019t want to put anyone through contempt proceedings, \u201cI want to trust that people are acting in good faith and have them acting in good faith until proven otherwise, and you have not proven otherwise to me in this litigation.\u201d In September, after NPS cut down about 150 trees, the government assured her that every one was invasive, dead, dying, or hazardous, and that further removals would follow those criteria and \u201cno other criteria.\u201d She took them at their word again.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe Government then did precisely what Plaintiffs feared,\u201d Reyes wrote. Sometime that month, National Mall and Memorial Parks Superintendent Kevin Griess asked his staff for a tree management plan (\u201cTMP\u201d). On October 5, Interior Deputy Chief of Staff Greg Wischer told NPS Deputy Director of Operations Frank Lands to implement a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report \u201cas soon as practical.\u201d Acting NPS Director Jessica Bowron signed off the next day. Notice to the court and the plaintiffs arrived at 4:55 p.m. on the Friday before a holiday weekend, with removal starting the next morning.<\/p>\n

Reyes noted the government managed plenty of speed, just not in the direction of the court, \u201cThe Government acted urgently\u2014internally, that is. There was no comparable rush when it came to providing Plaintiffs or the Court notice of the TMP.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why the rush? Here\u2019s what the man running the project told her under oath at Monday\u2019s emergency hearing:<\/p>\n

THE COURT: Is there any urgency of continuing with the tree removal?
GRIESS: Not that I\u2019m aware of, Your Honor.
THE COURT: So the trees could be cut down tomorrow, or they could be cut down a month from now, and from the government\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s basically the same?
GRIESS: From what I understand, Your Honor, yes.<\/p>\n

Griess\u2019s written declaration had said the work started in October because NPS \u201cnow received\u201d new budgetary resources. On the stand, he walked that back. There was no new money, and he could have submitted the plan at any time. The 2019 report covers all three of D.C.\u2019s public golf courses and much more than trees. The government implemented exactly one part of it, at exactly one course: tree removal at the course the president toured in June, when he announced on Truth Social that work \u201cwill go quickly\u201d and \u201cwill begin on September 1st.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes was not buying it:<\/p>\n

\n

It is a coincidence, the Government seems to suggest, that DOI cut down hundreds of trees at the Course weeks after the President asked DOI to cut down trees at the Course, and not, say, any other time in the last seven years. That asks rather a lot of coincidence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Her conclusion: officials \u201craced to undertake the TMP because President Trump demands haste on his redesign, and not because of some newfound zeal to implement a small part of a seven-year-old CLR.\u201d <\/p>\n

The environmental review fared no better. NPS skipped both an environmental impact statement and an environmental assessment and relied on a categorical exclusion form signed the day before the chainsaws came out. That form estimated 169 trees in the first zone, and crews took down roughly 200 more than that. Griess blamed the dense, skinny trees. Reyes offered another theory: \u201cPerhaps. Or perhaps the oversight occurred because the agency\u2019s NEPA compliance efforts lasted mere days.\u201d She pointed out that a similar project at Rock Creek Golf Course in 2023 came with a 250-plus-page environmental assessment and six months of analysis. \u201cPresumably that assessment of the forest did not miss half its trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a Lorax footnote. Reyes recounts that Dr. Seuss spent a year agonizing over the character before writing the whole book in one afternoon on safari, then adds: \u201cThe Court has seen no elephants. And it has certainly had less than a year to write. But it very much appreciates that her clerks know something of late-night work and industrious afternoons.\u201d That\u2019s a judge who turned around a 21-page opinion on a deadline the government manufactured, and wants you to know it.<\/p>\n

The written opinion is the polite version. At Monday\u2019s hearing<\/a>, Reyes told the government that \u201cwhat has happened has cost the government all of its credibility with me in this case.\u201d When Marissa Piropato, deputy chief in DOJ\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Division, insisted the government \u201cdid our best,\u201d Reyes shot back: \u201cOh, you did not do your best. You did your absolute worst.\u201d She promised that if her stop-work order was \u201cviolated by two seconds, there are going to be contempt proceedings.\u201d Wischer and Bowron have now been ordered to appear and testify on October 19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The TRO runs through Monday, October 26, and plaintiffs have to post a bond of $1.00. That\u2019s roughly what the government\u2019s representations are worth in Reyes\u2019s courtroom at this point.<\/p>\n

Reyes now joins the long and growing list of judges who extended this administration the presumption of regularity and got burned. Earlier this week, Judge Jennifer Rochon watched the government blow through her order on Trump propaganda ads because nobody checked their email<\/a>. Judge Arun Subramanian told DOJ that these things are starting to pile up<\/a>. Chief Judge James Boasberg found probable cause for criminal contempt after DOJ\u2019s Drew Ensign told him deportation flights weren\u2019t taking off when they absolutely were<\/a>. The presumption that the government acts in good faith was once a load-bearing pillar of federal litigation, and this DOJ has spent it down to nothing<\/a> in well under two years.<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s hearing, Reyes said law students regularly ask her whether the government is acting in good faith, and that she has always answered yes, that she trusts government lawyers and not one has violated her orders. The next time a law student asks, she\u2019s going to need a new answer, and she\u2019ll have plenty of colleagues who can help her workshop it.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> Trump Administration Blows Through Court Order On Propaganda Ads Because Nobody Checked Their Email<\/a>
Trump\u2019s DOJ Lawyers Leap In To Save Trump\u2019s Personal Lawyers<\/a>
DOJ To Judge: \u2018No One Was Trying To Pull A Fast One.\u2019 Judge: \u2018These Things Are Starting To Pile Up.\u2019<\/a>
DOJ Cites Fake Case To Keep Man Locked Up By ICE, Judge Declines To Do Anything About It<\/a>
Over 500 Former DOJ Lawyers Explain How They Somehow<\/em> Managed Jobs Without Massive Ethical Violations<\/a>
DOJ Forum Shops Harassment Campaign Against Trans Kids And Their Doctors<\/a>
DOJ Lawyer Asks To Be Held In Contempt So She Can Sleep<\/a>
DOJ\u2019s Losing Streak Continues Because Federal Officers Just Can\u2019t Stop Lying<\/a>
Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump\u2019s Lawyers<\/a>
Brutal, Humiliating Benchslap Puts An End To Lindsey Halligan Experiment<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post \u2018You Did Your Absolute Worst\u2019: Judge Delivers Epic Benchslap Over Trump Golf Course Chainsaw Spree<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

For months, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes did something that has become an endangered species in federal courtrooms: she gave the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt. The case, DC Preservation League v. Department of the Interior<\/em>, was filed in February by the preservation group and two regulars at the East Potomac Golf Course. That\u2019s the public course on the Potomac that Donald Trump wants rebuilt as \u201cone of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World.\u201d The plaintiffs argue that the administration\u2019s plan to \u201creplace the existing Golf Course with an elite championship-style course,\u201d which it calls the Washington National Plan, violates the Administrative Procedure Act. Through months of hearings, Reyes said she had no interest in becoming the \u201coverseer of Parks and Rec.\u201d She repeatedly declined to enter an injunction because she trusted the government\u2019s lawyers to warn her before anything irreversible happened.<\/p>\n

Aw, Judge Reyes \u2014 you dear, sweet summer child! Presuming good faith of this<\/em> administration is a fool\u2019s errand. <\/p>\n

In a 21-page memorandum opinion<\/a> issued Tuesday, Reyes appears to have learned that lesson the hard way. The judge granted the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order. She also laid out exactly what happened while she was extending all that trust:<\/p>\n

\n

In five days\u2014from Monday, October 5, 2026, to Friday, October 9, 2026\u2014the Department of the Interior ordered, considered, and approved a plan to remove hundreds of trees from the East Potomac Golf Course. Early the next morning, the National Park Service had bulldozers on site. By day\u2019s end, it had removed about 430 healthy, non-invasive trees.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It would have been hundreds more, but it rained. The opinion credits \u201cthe vagaries of Mother Nature\u2014and then this Court\u2019s equitable powers\u201d with stopping the operation, in that order. Then Reyes summed up the government\u2019s position in a paragraph that reads like she decided complete sentences were too generous:<\/p>\n

\n

Breakneck speed to clear trees that posed no harm. The reason? Disputed. The budget? Unclear. The environmental impact? Unstudied. The urgency? None. Next steps: bulldoze hundreds more.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To see why the judge is this angry, look back at the summer. In July, plaintiffs asked for a formal notice order, and Reyes said no, explaining that she didn\u2019t want to put anyone through contempt proceedings, \u201cI want to trust that people are acting in good faith and have them acting in good faith until proven otherwise, and you have not proven otherwise to me in this litigation.\u201d In September, after NPS cut down about 150 trees, the government assured her that every one was invasive, dead, dying, or hazardous, and that further removals would follow those criteria and \u201cno other criteria.\u201d She took them at their word again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government then did precisely what Plaintiffs feared,\u201d Reyes wrote. Sometime that month, National Mall and Memorial Parks Superintendent Kevin Griess asked his staff for a tree management plan (\u201cTMP\u201d). On October 5, Interior Deputy Chief of Staff Greg Wischer told NPS Deputy Director of Operations Frank Lands to implement a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report \u201cas soon as practical.\u201d Acting NPS Director Jessica Bowron signed off the next day. Notice to the court and the plaintiffs arrived at 4:55 p.m. on the Friday before a holiday weekend, with removal starting the next morning.<\/p>\n

Reyes noted the government managed plenty of speed, just not in the direction of the court, \u201cThe Government acted urgently\u2014internally, that is. There was no comparable rush when it came to providing Plaintiffs or the Court notice of the TMP.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why the rush? Here\u2019s what the man running the project told her under oath at Monday\u2019s emergency hearing:<\/p>\n

THE COURT: Is there any urgency of continuing with the tree removal?
GRIESS: Not that I\u2019m aware of, Your Honor.
THE COURT: So the trees could be cut down tomorrow, or they could be cut down a month from now, and from the government\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s basically the same?
GRIESS: From what I understand, Your Honor, yes.<\/p>\n

Griess\u2019s written declaration had said the work started in October because NPS \u201cnow received\u201d new budgetary resources. On the stand, he walked that back. There was no new money, and he could have submitted the plan at any time. The 2019 report covers all three of D.C.\u2019s public golf courses and much more than trees. The government implemented exactly one part of it, at exactly one course: tree removal at the course the president toured in June, when he announced on Truth Social that work \u201cwill go quickly\u201d and \u201cwill begin on September 1st.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes was not buying it:<\/p>\n

\n

It is a coincidence, the Government seems to suggest, that DOI cut down hundreds of trees at the Course weeks after the President asked DOI to cut down trees at the Course, and not, say, any other time in the last seven years. That asks rather a lot of coincidence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Her conclusion: officials \u201craced to undertake the TMP because President Trump demands haste on his redesign, and not because of some newfound zeal to implement a small part of a seven-year-old CLR.\u201d <\/p>\n

The environmental review fared no better. NPS skipped both an environmental impact statement and an environmental assessment and relied on a categorical exclusion form signed the day before the chainsaws came out. That form estimated 169 trees in the first zone, and crews took down roughly 200 more than that. Griess blamed the dense, skinny trees. Reyes offered another theory: \u201cPerhaps. Or perhaps the oversight occurred because the agency\u2019s NEPA compliance efforts lasted mere days.\u201d She pointed out that a similar project at Rock Creek Golf Course in 2023 came with a 250-plus-page environmental assessment and six months of analysis. \u201cPresumably that assessment of the forest did not miss half its trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a Lorax footnote. Reyes recounts that Dr. Seuss spent a year agonizing over the character before writing the whole book in one afternoon on safari, then adds: \u201cThe Court has seen no elephants. And it has certainly had less than a year to write. But it very much appreciates that her clerks know something of late-night work and industrious afternoons.\u201d That\u2019s a judge who turned around a 21-page opinion on a deadline the government manufactured, and wants you to know it.<\/p>\n

The written opinion is the polite version. At Monday\u2019s hearing<\/a>, Reyes told the government that \u201cwhat has happened has cost the government all of its credibility with me in this case.\u201d When Marissa Piropato, deputy chief in DOJ\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Division, insisted the government \u201cdid our best,\u201d Reyes shot back: \u201cOh, you did not do your best. You did your absolute worst.\u201d She promised that if her stop-work order was \u201cviolated by two seconds, there are going to be contempt proceedings.\u201d Wischer and Bowron have now been ordered to appear and testify on October 19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The TRO runs through Monday, October 26, and plaintiffs have to post a bond of $1.00. That\u2019s roughly what the government\u2019s representations are worth in Reyes\u2019s courtroom at this point.<\/p>\n

Reyes now joins the long and growing list of judges who extended this administration the presumption of regularity and got burned. Earlier this week, Judge Jennifer Rochon watched the government blow through her order on Trump propaganda ads because nobody checked their email<\/a>. Judge Arun Subramanian told DOJ that these things are starting to pile up<\/a>. Chief Judge James Boasberg found probable cause for criminal contempt after DOJ\u2019s Drew Ensign told him deportation flights weren\u2019t taking off when they absolutely were<\/a>. The presumption that the government acts in good faith was once a load-bearing pillar of federal litigation, and this DOJ has spent it down to nothing<\/a> in well under two years.<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s hearing, Reyes said law students regularly ask her whether the government is acting in good faith, and that she has always answered yes, that she trusts government lawyers and not one has violated her orders. The next time a law student asks, she\u2019s going to need a new answer, and she\u2019ll have plenty of colleagues who can help her workshop it.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> Trump Administration Blows Through Court Order On Propaganda Ads Because Nobody Checked Their Email<\/a>
Trump\u2019s DOJ Lawyers Leap In To Save Trump\u2019s Personal Lawyers<\/a>
DOJ To Judge: \u2018No One Was Trying To Pull A Fast One.\u2019 Judge: \u2018These Things Are Starting To Pile Up.\u2019<\/a>
DOJ Cites Fake Case To Keep Man Locked Up By ICE, Judge Declines To Do Anything About It<\/a>
Over 500 Former DOJ Lawyers Explain How They Somehow<\/em> Managed Jobs Without Massive Ethical Violations<\/a>
DOJ Forum Shops Harassment Campaign Against Trans Kids And Their Doctors<\/a>
DOJ Lawyer Asks To Be Held In Contempt So She Can Sleep<\/a>
DOJ\u2019s Losing Streak Continues Because Federal Officers Just Can\u2019t Stop Lying<\/a>
Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump\u2019s Lawyers<\/a>
Brutal, Humiliating Benchslap Puts An End To Lindsey Halligan Experiment<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For months, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes did something that has become an endangered species in federal courtrooms: she gave the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt. The case, DC Preservation League v. Department of the Interior, was filed in February by the preservation group and two regulars at the East Potomac Golf Course. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":165028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}