Reyes also ordered Justice Department attorneys in the courtroom to state whether any of them were willing to sign the brief Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward filed Sunday night on the department's behalf. When Woodward instructed the lawyers not to answer and called the demand untenable, Reyes gave him until 3 p.m. to file a brief explaining why she cannot ask other Justice Department attorneys if they are willing to sign the filing.
The courtroom clash followed Woodward's Sunday night filing arguing that Trump's newly unveiled plan to close the historic Washington public course on Nov. 15 for a 15 month rebuild by architect Tom Fazio "is not final" and remains subject to National Park Service review, after government lawyers called the plan "nascent" two days earlier. Hours before the hearing, Reyes denied Woodward's motion to disqualify her from the lawsuit, and Trump attacked the judge on Truth Social while declaring that the administration does not need her approval to begin renovations "immediately."