Woke U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes exploded into a fiery outrage complete with a nuclear meltdown of a tirade aimed at lawyers for the Justice Department during an emergency hearing concerning the construction of a golf course. The hearing was over the removal of hundreds of trees located at the East Potomac Golf Links, located in Washington, D.C.
Reyes, who was nominated for the bench by former President Joe Biden and then confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2023, stated during a four-hour virtual hearing that government lawyers had “lost credibility” with the court concerning the matter. It tackled actions that were taken by the National Park Service, which cut down 430 trees over the preceding weekend.
This greatly displeased the D.C. Preservation League, which filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service over plans affecting the historic public course, located on federal land. President Donald Trump has publicly discussed transforming the facility into a championship-caliber course. The Trump administration defended the removal of the trees implementing a landscape-restoration plan that was adopted by the National Park Service in 2019.
According to a report from Trending Politics News, the plaintiffs in the suit have stated that the applicable environmental and historic-preservation requirements have not been fully satisfied. Reyes directed the government in a previous order to provide advance notice before the major work at the site was started, which included the removal of more than 10 trees.
Court records, along with accounts of the hearing indicate that formal notices were filed sometime around 4:55 on the Friday just before the Columbus Day weekend, with the work starting the next morning. Attorneys for the DOJ told the court they learned of the planned operation several days earlier. Reyes then said that the limited notice after prior instructions to the parties involved, cost the government its credibility in the case.
The judge went on to describe herself as not at all being amused by the affair and said that she previously gave the government the benefit of the doubt concerning its representations. Reyes then issued an order to temporarily halt any further tree removal, including for any routine maintenance, until 2 p.m. the next day, indicating she would need three business days’ notice before any additional work was completed.
Judge Reyes also directed officials from the National Park Service to provide testimony under oath concerning the timing and authorization of any tree removals. She has previously overseen cases involving the Trump administration. During litigation that challenged one of President Trump’s executive orders placing restrictions on transgender individuals participating in military service, she issued a preliminary injunction claiming the policy was probably unconstitutional.
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During the hearings for that specific case, Judge Reyes questioned an attorney for the DOJ about religious beliefs in a hypothetical situation concerning access to homeless shelters. The DOJ then filed a judicial misconduct complaint against her, alleging she engaged in hostile and egregious conduct that raises concerns of bias in the case.