Judge Temporarily Blocks Closure of East Potomac Golf Links
A US federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from closing East Potomac Golf Links and its park in Washington, DC. The closure had been scheduled to begin on 15 November for extensive renovations.
Judge Ana Reyes ruled in a 30-page decision that the administration's justifications for the closures were pretextual, meaning the reasons given were not the real ones. She also found that the government had violated at least two federal laws in order to meet an arbitrary deadline. The BBC reported that the order keeps the situation as it is for now, and that it runs until 28 November. Such an order is known as a temporary restraining order, a short-term court order that holds things in place while a case is heard.
The ruling does not require the administration to actively manage the park or the golf course, Reyes found. President Donald Trump had announced that the course would close for 15 months starting on 15 November so that renovations could take place.
East Potomac Golf Links is 106 years old and sits 2 miles (3km) south of the White House. It is one of three public courses run by the National Park Service, the federal agency that manages the country's national parks, in Washington. The DC Preservation League and others sued in February over redevelopment plans for the park.
The dispute also involved trees. In October, the National Park Service began cutting down hundreds of trees after giving Reyes only 15 hours' notice, according to the BBC. Reyes then ordered the administration to stop removing trees until at least 26 October. She also required three business days' notice before any other permanent changes to the park.
Reyes has opened a separate inquiry into whether attorneys at the Justice Department made misrepresentations to the court and violated ethical rules that govern lawyers' conduct. She said she would conduct that inquiry with a special master, an independent third party appointed to examine the matter for the court.
