Five months ago, a federal judge in Washington gave the Trump administration one simple rule for East Potomac Golf Links, the historic public course Trump wants to rebuild into a championship layout. Get court approval before cutting down more than 10 trees.
Then came Friday. Minutes before 5 p.m., government officials notified the court that they planned to remove “up to 529 trees” in phases starting Saturday, and by the end of that Saturday at least 430 mature trees were lying on the ground of a public park that belongs to you and every other taxpayer in this country.
The Spirit of an Order Matters
You don’t ask a judge for permission at 4:55 on a Friday and start the saws Saturday unless you never wanted an answer.
I’ve stood in front of judges for 40 years, and every new lawyer learns this rule fast. A court order means what the judge intended it to mean. The whole point of the rule was to give Judge Ana Reyes time to look at the plan and decide before anything happened. A last minute filing dropped late on a Friday gives a judge zero time to do any of that. The trees came down before anyone in the courthouse had a fair shot at reading the paperwork. That move honors the letter of nothing and the spirit of less. Lawyers have a name for it. We call it gamesmanship, and judges see through it every time.
The Judge Ran Out of Patience
Reyes called an emergency hearing on Monday that ran nearly four hours by video, and she did not hold back. “What has happened has cost the government all of its credibility with me in this case,” she said. When a government lawyer claimed they had done their best to notify the court, she raised her voice. “You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst.”
This same judge had bent over backward for months. After crews removed roughly 150 trees in late August, she declined to step in and famously said, “I am not the Lorax.” On Monday she admitted, “I have done everything humanly possible to give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case.” Then she warned that “if that order is violated by two seconds, there are going to be contempt proceedings.”
Somebody Gave the Order
Superintendent Kevin Griess said he got the green light from Frank Lands, a top park service official, who joined the hearing from his car in a parking lot. Lands said the directive came from Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Wischer never showed up. Reyes ordered him and acting park service director Jessica Bowron to testify next Monday. “The questions go to whether or not I’ve been lied to,” she said.
Why You Should Care
Think about a tenant who promises to ask the landlord before knocking down a wall, texts at 4:55 on Friday, and swings the sledgehammer Saturday morning. You would call that what it is.
The park service says redevelopment plans “remain in the conceptual stage,” and the chainsaws say otherwise. Reyes extended her stop order through October 26 and now requires three business days of written notice before any irreparable change, finding the plaintiffs “proven they will likely suffer irreparable harm absent injunctive relief.”
We the people refuse to accept a government that treats a federal judge’s order like a suggestion, and the fastest way to fix it is to show up in the midterms and send a new majority of responsible adults to Congress who will respect the courts and hold this administration accountable. This is your moment to start getting it fixed. Vote.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
The government is counting on you to miss the 4:55 Friday filings and the quiet moves that bend the law and the Constitution, and I promise to do my best to put every one of them in front of you here at Uncensored Objection. Subscribe today and support this work so a trial lawyer keeps watching the courthouse door for you every single week.
Trump and his treasonous gang of thugs are all pieces of 💩 Throw them all in jail!!
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