A federal judge said Monday she would stay the course and not block the Trump administration from closing East Potomac Golf Links.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said reports about renovation plans aren’t enough for her block the process, but added warned she would intervene if the plans move forward, per The Hill.
“I don’t want to be the overseer of Parks and Rec. I’m no Amy Poehler,” Reyes said at a Monday hearing.
Construction crews have been dumping debris from the East Wing demolition on East Potomac’s course.
The DC Preservation League and two golfers filed a lawsuit in February, but have picked up their efforts over the weekend after reports from NOTUS and The Washington Post indicated that deferred maintenance and tree-clearing work was set to begin this week ahead of renovations.
Reyes, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ordered government attorneys to work overnight so they could be ready to present their response at Monday morning’s proceeding.
Will Bardwell, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, told the judge the government would “use this as an excuse to begin hardcore construction under the guise of taking down a dying tree.”
“We don’t want what happened at the Kennedy Center to happen here,” said Bardwell, who works at the Democracy Forward Foundation.
Kevin Griess, who helps manage National Park Service sites in the nation’s capital, pushed back.
He said officials were planning to tag dying trees and examine other conditions at the course; there were no plans to raze it on Monday.
“Right now, business as usual,” Griess said.
Though the judge declined to intervene, she did order the government to notify the preservationist group if they plan to cut down more than 10 trees or if plans change.
If “bulldozers show up, we’re not doing a whole briefing schedule. I’m going to make people show up with documents pretty quickly,” Reyes said.
