“Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President. And yet, here we are.”

That line, from U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes’s 70-page opinion on Tuesday, blocks the Trump administration from removing any more trees at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., and forces the government to give 10 business days’ written notice before any “irreparable modification” to the century-old public course. More than 400 trees were cleared over Columbus Day weekend, and the judge found the demolition had been carried out in bad faith.

Reyes was explicit about what the case was and was not. She wrote that she was “not the Lorax” and did not speak for the trees, noting that the court “speaks only for the rule of law.” Earlier in the opinion she observed that “this started as a case about golf. That good walk spoiled. But it has become much more.”

Trump: closing November 15 anyway

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the judge had “no right” to halt the project and that East Potomac would close on November 15 to renovate and rebuild for “Competitive (with other such projects!), Safety, Modernization, and Aesthetic reasons.” He has said the course, redesigned by architect Tom Fazio under a plan from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s department, would reopen in roughly 15 months and would be built to host events such as the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup, and the Presidents Cup.

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The Justice Department moved to put the closure in motion before the ink was dry. In a court filing, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward told the court that “Interior, acting through counsel, is working to develop a plan to implement that direction and will provide this Court with notice.” Within hours of Trump’s post, the DOJ had filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The lawsuit behind the injunction

The case was brought by the D.C. Preservation League and two local golfers, represented by Democracy Forward’s Skye Perryman. The plaintiffs argue that the administration is attempting to replace a historic public course, open since 1920 and sitting on National Park Service land, with a private-style championship facility, and that it bypassed federal environmental review in doing so. Reyes found the challengers were likely to succeed on their claim that the government had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by segmenting its review.

The administration had already tried, and failed, to force Reyes off the case: a motion earlier in October to remove her for alleged “egregious” behavior was denied.

What happens on November 15

The Interior Department is drawing up the shutdown. Once the course closes to the public, the preliminary injunction still binds the administration: no more trees can come down, and the court must be given 10 business days’ notice of any further changes to the fairways, bunkers, or other features while the appeal is pending at the D.C. Circuit.

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