Judge Blocks East Potomac Golf Course Closure Hours Before Shutdown
A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from closing Washington’s East Potomac Park and its public golf course, hours before a 15-month shutdown was due to begin.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a temporary restraining order keeping the historic riverside park open to the public through 28 November, the latest setback for President Donald Trump’s plan to rebuild the site as a championship venue. The order came one day before the government was due to close the park on Sunday, 15 November.
Judge calls the shutdown reasons “pretextual”
In a 30-page decision, Reyes found that the administration’s stated reasons for closing the park were “pretextual” and that the government had violated at least two federal laws “to meet an arbitrary deadline”.
“The government proposes to close a historic park, daily enjoyed by Washingtonians of all stripes, indefinitely,” Reyes wrote.
The order bars the government from closing East Potomac Park and the East Potomac Golf Links during the hours they were open as of 14 November. It does not require the government to keep running the golf facilities, and repairs may continue. But Reyes made clear the government “cannot use the absence of golf operations as a reason to exclude the public” from the park.
The ruling is a preliminary finding made in deciding temporary relief, not a final judgment on the redevelopment itself.
What the closure would have meant
The National Park Service had planned to close the area from 9 p.m. on Sunday, including Ohio Drive, Hains Point, the golf facilities and the walking and cycling trails and shoreline paths south of Buckeye Drive SW. The Park Service’s published Record of Determination said National Links Trust, the course operator, would stop running East Potomac Golf Course on 15 November.
Trump announced in October that the course would close on 15 November for about 15 months, to be rebuilt as what he called “one of the Best and Most Spectacular Golf Courses anywhere in the World”. The redesign would replace the park’s three courses, totalling 36 holes, plus a miniature course, with a single 18-hole championship layout built to a new Fazio design and capable of hosting world-class events.
The park sits near the Jefferson Memorial, about two miles south of the White House, and its paved loop is popular with cyclists and runners as well as golfers.
The lawsuit behind the ruling
The case, DC Preservation League v. Department of the Interior, was brought by the DC Preservation League, a historic preservation group that argues the redevelopment violates federal environmental and administrative laws. Bloomberg Law reported that the case is DC Preservation League v. Department of the Interior, D.D.C., No. 1:26-cv-00477. Reyes found the administration likely breached those laws in its haste to meet the closure deadline.
Reyes, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, has been a frequent check on the administration’s efforts to reshape the capital’s historic spaces. Reuters reported that Trump has called her a “lunatic”.
The dispute has already produced one earlier court intervention: earlier this month, Reyes appointed a former US attorney to examine ethics questions in the golf course case.
What happens next
The restraining order runs through 28 November, or until the court rules again, whichever comes first. Planning for the championship course may continue, and the government may restrict access around documented safety hazards while repairs go ahead.
But the 15 November closure will not happen. The park stays open on the hours it kept on 14 November, and the wider legal challenge continues. A final ruling could still allow the redevelopment to go ahead, or stop it altogether.
For now, golfers, cyclists and runners keep a park that has served Washington for a century — and the administration’s timetable has been set back by at least two weeks.
