Trump Administration Challenges Judge’s Rulings in Golf Course Case, Urges Court to Reject Plaintiffs’ Injunction Request

The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to dismiss arguments from plaintiffs challenging construction and tree removal at Washington, D.C.’s public East Potomac Golf Course.

In a 44-page opposition motion filed Friday, the government also sharply criticized the judge’s rulings, legal reasoning and handling of the case.

The case, which began months ago, was brought by golfers and an environmental advocacy group. In their lawsuit, they allege President Donald Trump planned to “destroy East Potomac Golf Course and to build in its place a championship-style golf course suitable for professional tournaments.”

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden appointee, initially declined to grant the plaintiffs preliminary relief. She told the parties she did “not want to be the overseer of Parks and Rec.”

The government now argues that the court overstepped its authority by ordering senior Interior Department officials to undergo broad questioning. “Despite lacking jurisdiction, this Court has now violated bedrock separation of powers principles by demanding that high-ranking Department of the Interior officials be subject to wide-ranging cross-examination without any showing of exceptional circumstances,” the motion states.

According to the Justice Department, the plaintiffs have already had their deposition “bite at the apple.” The government says they previously questioned Interior officials about matters that were “of little to no relevance to the TRO proceedings before the Court.”

The DOJ calls the additional discovery authorized by Reyes an “error” that was “compounded” by several other mistakes in her rulings.

The opposition motion identifies those alleged mistakes from the government’s perspective:

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“On October 13, 2026, the Court entered a TRO based on a claim that Plaintiffs did not make, against an agency action they did not challenge, on a theory of harm and causation they did not present,” the filing says. The temporary restraining order bars the National Park Service, which manages the facility in East Potomac Park, from “fell[ing] any further trees on the East Potomac Golf Course.”

On the question of standing, the government contends that the plaintiffs merely “dislike the proposed changes” because they “enjoy the golf course as it is, and do not wish for it to change.”

That preference, the motion argues, is “not a basis” for a lawsuit because it fails to demonstrate a “concrete and particularized injury.”

The government further maintains that the plaintiffs are challenging a “yet-to-be-finalized proposal to redesign and renovate” the course.

“Their complaint, even as amended, still relies upon speculation about what the Proposal will specifically propose, how it will be implemented and what it will consist of in final form, and how, if at all, the Proposal or its final implementation might cause them injury in the future,” the filing says.

The administration argues that the disputed tree removal is a separate matter from the broader golf-course proposal.

“Plaintiffs’ complaint nowhere alleges that the tree removal that occurred on October 10th, and would have continued but for this Court’s intervention, is even part of the Proposal to begin with,” the motion states. “The record demonstrates that it is not.”

The Trump administration accuses the judge of making an “error” in the golf-course case and criticizes several of her decisions while asking the court to reject the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction. The post Trump admin accuses judge in golf course case of ‘error’ and criticizes her decisions while asking court to rule against plaintiffs on preliminary injunction request first appeared on Law & Crime.