A federal judge halted a hearing on President Donald Trump’s golf course overhaul after ordering his Justice Department to produce “a live human being who understands the law.”
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued the order Friday during a hearing on a lawsuit seeking to stop the government from closing East Potomac Park on Sunday, Lawfare’s Molly Roberts reported from the courtroom.
Justice Department official Adam Gustafson had just told Reyes the closure would be published as a direct final rule, which takes effect without the usual public notice and chance to comment. Asked what the law says about such rules, he said he would have to brush up.
Reyes said she had been assured in earlier hearings that the public would get notice and a chance to comment before any rule on the park. She told the government she would not spend another night dealing with its last-minute tactics and demanded a lawyer in the courtroom within an hour, Roberts reported.
The Interior Department had posted its written closure decision only Thursday evening. When Reyes asked about the timing earlier in the day, Gustafson blamed an outage.
“There will be some clarity once this is published,” Gustafson said of the rule.
“There’s gonna be clarity before I leave the bench for the day,” Reyes replied.
“I want a live human being who understands the law and who can argue it,” Reyes said.
Gustafson said the department would “try their very best.”
“You’re ordered to do it or tell me that you can’t do it by 2:30,” Reyes said.
Reyes had also warned that if the department could not get someone there to argue the point, she would have to think the government was well past the presumption of regularity. That is the legal assumption that officials act properly and in good faith.
That warning put at risk the same presumption Gustafson had claimed for the government that morning, when Reyes asked whether an agency could make a final decision without putting it in writing.
“I would say the government’s entitled to a presumption of regularity,” Gustafson said at the time.
“Well, you might want to move on from that point,” Reyes replied.
Reyes called a five-minute break after issuing the order. When the hearing resumed, Roberts noted, it had not been five minutes, and most of the Justice Department team was still in the hallway.
The closure would shut everything south of Buckeye Drive, including the public golf course and Ohio Drive. The government says it must close the area because of a crumbling seawall and because the course will soon have no operator.
The plaintiffs, led by the D.C. Preservation League, argue the closure is a step toward Trump’s plan to replace the course with a championship-style design by Tom Fazio. Reyes ruled last month that the administration likely violated environmental law in pursuing its plans for the course, ABC News reported.
After the break, Reyes asked Gustafson whether he could estimate when the park might reopen if it closes Sunday. He said no.
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