Judge rips Trump admin's 'disturbing' behavior against National Park Service protest

A federal judge ripped into the Trump administration on Wednesday over its actions to suppress protests by National Park Service employees.

Federal Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan from the District of Columbia wrote in a new order that the Trump administration's decision to announce a new ban on flags at Yosemite, including at El Capitan, a world-famous rock climbing spot in the park, "appears to implicate fundamental First Amendment issues that bear on the free speech rights of park rangers and federal employees across our country."

The flag ban was handed down after Dr. Shannon Joslin, a wildlife biologist who had worked for the NPS for four years before the protest, hung a large transgender pride flag on El Capitan during her personal time in protest of the administration's treatment of the transgender community.

Joslin was fired following the protest and sued the Trump administration in the District Court of D.C. for wrongful termination, First Amendment violations, and for allegedly violating the Privacy Act.

Sooknanan ordered on Wednesday that her court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case and said it can be transferred to the Eastern District of California.

Even so, Sooknanan took the time to rip the administration's handling of the case, calling it "disturbing."

Read the entire order by clicking here.