Ana C. Reyes

Okay, last story.

Federal Judge Ana Reyes sharply criticized administration lawyers during a tense hearing after President Trump publicly declared plans to proceed with a major overhaul of D.C.'s historic East Potomac Gulf links, despite a court order temporarily halting the project.

The clash escalated over the government's controversial removal of hundreds of trees and conflicting statements between Trump's public assertions of a finalized redesign and his attorney's claims that plans remain preliminary.

While local preservationists fight to protect the century-old affordable public landmark from being transformed into a single championship-style course, Trump attacked the judge online and insisted renovation work would move forward immediately.

But then Sunday, Trump posted his plans, detailed, extensive, ready to go.

Federal Judge Ana Reyes, whose hold on the project had been opposed as too much too soon, was angry.

NPR said at the Monday hearing she demanded to know who was responsible for misleading the court.

Trump tweeted that the judge was, quote, a crazed lunatic.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Roni Karen Rabin report for The New York Times.

Trump Administration Litigation Federal Judge Ana C. Reyes yesterday sharply rebuked Trump administration lawyers over Trump's apparent intent to defy the court and proceed with a major renovation of the East Potomac Gulf links in the capital.

The hearing ended without a decision, but Reyes wanted to know who in the administration was responsible for misleading the court about Trump's renovation plans, announced on Sunday.

Rachel Treisman and Scott Newman report for NPR.

Okay.

Now, at a day-long preliminary injunction hearing on Monday, that's yesterday, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes asked Justice Department lawyers as well as Interior Department and National Park Service officials about Trump's plan to renovate the course.

An NPS National Park Service report from 2019 addressing improvements to be made at all three D.C. public golf courses.

There are others.

Let's say, of course, a century-old low-cost public golf course on a man-made island just south of the west end of the mall in Washington, D.C.

But for as inconsequential as that lawsuit may seem compared to challenges to nationwide immigration policies, say, or disputes over efforts to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections, about which we have plenty, the case has become a flashpoint for the Department of Justice's increasingly insolent behavior toward federal district judges, especially when those judges have had the temerity to express protest frustration and exasperation over the government's noncompliance with their prior court orders.

There are certainly lines that judges can cross in their behavior toward parties, but notwithstanding the pearl clutching by the government itself, to say nothing of right-wing social media, now threatening the judge with death, of course, a full assessment of the record in the East Potomac case sure seems to suggest that the problematic behavior has come from the government, not from Judge Ana Reyes.

The real world stakes of the East Potomac case may be modest, especially compared to everything else that's going on.

Well, you know, Robert, I think that it's not just the Trump administration trying to claw back some of their Article II powers from the legislature, but also we see this with the executive and their tensions with the judiciary.

One of the stories we've been covering this week, last week, was Judge Ana Reyes and the ongoing dispute between the Department of Justice and the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and plaintiffs who are suing over changes to the golf course in Washington, D.C. And, you know, I see some parallels there where the Trump administration is also trying to push back and reclaim some of their executive authority from what they perceive as judicial interference.

Right.

Yeah, this fits a larger pattern of what the Trump administration has been doing by pushing back against both the federal courts and Congress.

The order also revoked a 2023 memorandum and a 2024 executive order on women's health research issued under former President Joe Biden.

Washington, D.C. At a court hearing yesterday, US District Judge Ana Reyes pressed Justice Department lawyers to reconcile officials' testimony that there is no final plan to redevelop the historic East Potomac golf course, with President Donald Trump's social media post saying work would begin immediately.

Reyes is reported to be considering a longer-term order limiting what the administration can do to the course.

U.S. and Japan.

which is temporarily blocked by a court order.

There is no universe in which all of this coincidentally happened all at the same time, a U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said during a hearing over the fate of a project that has emerged as the latest legal flashpoint in President Donald Trump's campaign to leave his personal imprint on the nation's capital.

The hearing, which continued more than five hours, ended with Reyes taking no action.

Reyes last week ordered a halt to the golf course's redevelopment plans until at least October 26, after scolding the government for starting a large-scale tree removal at the course over a holiday weekend while providing little notice.

A hearing about the fate of the East Potomac Golf Course links in Washington turned into a prolonged standoff yesterday as a federal judge went to extraordinary lengths to learn who's responsible for these decisions.

Who's doing this? At the conclusion of the day-long hearing, Judge Ana Reyes said that she was considering whether to order work halted at the site and, if so, how sweeping an order to issue was.

The hearing came after Trump announced that his administration would transform the golf course into a professional golf venue.

Reyes is really not happy with any of this.

And finally, the historic East Potomac Gulf Links in Washington has become the center of a political battle over its future.

Stephen Dinan reports President Trump said on social media that work on his redesign at the course along the Potomac River would begin immediately, a claim that his officials disputed hours later during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes.

She presided over six hours of hearings as she sought to get to the bottom of why the National Park Service cut down more than 400 trees on the course October 10th, despite what she thought was a clear instruction to give substantial notice before any major changes at the park.

Reyes said she's become the target of over-the-top criticism, including possibly death threats over her actions in the case.