5 minPolitics
Judge Reyes Withdraws Demand for DOJ Lawyers to Sign Filing in Trump Golf Course Case
Judge Ana Reyes backed away from her demand that Justice Department attorneys sign a filing in the dispute over tree removals at a Washington golf course, ending a nearly seven-hour hearing and defusing a confrontation with the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes withdrew her demand that Justice Department attorneys sign a court filing in the legal battle over tree removals at a federally owned Washington golf course, ending a nearly seven-hour hearing Monday and defusing a confrontation with the Trump administration.
Reyes had invoked Rule 11, which requires attorneys to stand behind the factual basis of court filings and can expose them to sanctions, after Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. submitted a Sunday filing signed only by himself. The judge initially ordered the attorneys arguing the case to come to the podium and sign the document, then set a 3 p.m. deadline before extending it to noon Tuesday and offering to let their names appear on the brief instead of requiring signatures. In the end, she abandoned the demand entirely.
«Late breaking news,» Reyes said. «I'm going to withdraw request that DOJ refile yesterday's brief with identification of who signed it. We've all got better things to spend our time on.»
The dispute centers on President Donald Trump's plans to renovate East Potomac Golf Links into what he has described as a «world-class, U.S. Open-caliber course.» The lawsuit was first filed in February. Tensions escalated earlier this month when the National Park Service removed roughly 430 trees at the course over a weekend. The Interior Department said the removals were part of a years-old plan to restore the course's historic design and were unrelated to Trump's proposed overhaul.
Although the tree removal did not violate a court order, it prompted Reyes to impose a temporary restraining order barring further removals. She was described as «screaming» at administration attorneys during an Oct. 12 hearing, which led Woodward to seek her removal from the case, accusing her of bias and «open hostility» toward the Trump administration.
Hours before Monday's hearing, Trump called Reyes a «crazed lunatic» on Truth Social and said the court's audio recordings of the hearings should be released. He also said the administration has a «right» to turn the course into a «great, safe, and prestigious» golf course and that work was scheduled to begin immediately. In two other posts, he said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and architect Tom Fazio had developed a plan for the course and that work would begin Nov. 15.
Those posts prompted Reyes to give the Justice Department an 8 p.m. filing deadline, saying Trump's characterization conflicted with a previous filing that stated there was «no agency action» in the golf course plan. The resulting filing was signed only by Woodward, which became a point of contention at the start of Monday's hearing. Woodward called the demand that attorneys sign the brief «not an appropriate request,» and he and the other attorneys refused.
Legal observers noted that senior Justice Department officials sometimes sign contentious briefs so that any objections from a judge are directed at them rather than at lower-level attorneys. Abhishek Kambli, a former federal prosecutor, wrote on X that the practice «boils down to good leadership» and that «a decision such as this should not be something a judge is inquiring into.» Rachel Bovard, vice president of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute, wrote that «DOJ line attorneys increasingly do not sign briefs because of Dem law fare.»
Reyes, appointed by President Joe Biden in 2023, previously faced a Justice Department judicial-misconduct complaint over her handling of litigation challenging Trump's restrictions on transgender individuals serving in the military. During a February 2025 hearing, she questioned a Trump administration attorney about what Jesus Christ would say about policies excluding transgender people from homeless shelters. Then-DOJ Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle accused her of «hostile and egregious misconduct» and potential bias in a formal complaint filed with the D.C. Circuit. The complaint was later dismissed, with the circuit's chief judge concluding that a recusal motion was the proper avenue for challenging Reyes' conduct.
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