U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes will stay on the East Potomac Golf Course case after rejecting the Justice Department's demand that she step aside.
Reyes issued a 13-page opinion Sunday night, Oct. 18, denying the recusal motion ahead of a hearing scheduled for Monday, Oct. 19. The DOJ had accused her of bias and "violating the basic norms" of judicial impartiality after she scolded a government attorney over the administration's tree-cutting at the park, according to DC News Now, citing reporting by The Hill.
"It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion," Reyes wrote. "But it is much harder to meet the demanding legal standard against a full record."
The ruling clears the way for Monday's hearing, where Reyes has ordered top officials from the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to testify about the government's tree-clearing and its connection to President Donald Trump's plans for the 106-year-old public course.
What triggered the recusal fight
The DOJ filed its recusal motion after a heated Oct. 12 emergency hearing. Reyes had called the session after the government notified the court just before 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, that it planned to remove up to 529 trees starting the next morning. Crews razed at least 430 in a single day, according to WAMU.
At that hearing, Reyes said the government had lost "all of its credibility in this case." The DOJ cited her tone, including a moment when she asked a government lawyer whether they were unable to use a phone or drive a car. The department also objected to her requiring administration witnesses to testify on a federal holiday.
In her opinion, Reyes pushed back point by point. She noted that before Oct. 11, she had denied every one of the plaintiffs' roughly dozen requests to restrain the government. She had repeatedly praised government counsel's work in earlier hearings, at one point calling a government brief one of the most exceptional she had seen on the bench.
The government created the emergency, Reyes wrote, and the court responded. She cited D.C. Circuit precedent holding that expressions of impatience and anger do not require disqualification, and that a recusal motion cannot become a procedural weapon to delay proceedings.
Trump calls judge 'crazed lunatic'
Hours after the opinion dropped, Trump wrote on Truth Social that "the judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane?" according to DC News Now.
Trump had announced Oct. 18 that East Potomac Golf Links would close Nov. 15 for 15 months of renovations. He said the Department of the Interior and architect Tom Fazio developed a plan to build a championship-level course. The plan would reduce the site from three courses to one and add a new driving range and putting course, according to DC News Now.
Opponents say the overhaul would alter the character of a public space open to Washingtonians of all income levels. The DC Preservation League and two golfers filed suit Feb. 13, represented by Democracy Forward. Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement Oct. 18 that the group's litigation aims to "protect this community jewel for the people and communities it serves."
Monday's hearing is set to address the preliminary injunction request and whether administration officials misled the court about the scope of the renovation plans. The existing restraining order on tree-clearing runs through Oct. 26.
