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Jenna Portnoy
Reporter Covering Congressional Delegations Virginia, Maryland and D.C.
Paddlers using the Potomac River near President Trump's Loudoun County Golf Course filed a federal lawsuit Thursday morning to try to reverse a policy that closes a two-mile stretch when the president plays golf.
Last summer the Coast Guard set up a security perimeter between the shoreline and the shore, angering canoeists and amateur kayakers who use the river to paddle, take courses and do conservation.
Democracy Forward, a nonprofit organization created last year that focuses on executive actions, represents the Canoe Cruisers Association of Greater Washington DC, based in Montgomery County.
The lawsuit, filed in the South District Court of Maryland, states that Trump has made more than three dozen visits to the golf club since the settlement and every time access to the river was restricted.
"We see a tendency for this administration to violate the law when it suits its political goals," said Nitin Shah, senior counsel for the Democracy Foundation.
The group also sued the administration for pushing back the Obama-era guidelines on responding to sexual violence on campus and for asking airlines to report lost or mismanaged wheelchairs.
The lawsuits against the paddlers are called defendants Karl L. Schultz, commander of the Coast Guard and Kirstjen Nielson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and their agencies.
Shah said that they have violated a federal law that requires government agencies to give notice and allow the public to comment, adding that the rule is too broad and has no end date.
In addition to the Canoe Cruisers, which was founded in 1956 and has approximately 250 members, the policy hinders paddling schools, summer camps for children, members of the US Whitewater team training for the Olympics and veterans. disabled, according to the trial.
The safety zone, known as "Seneca Lake," is a quiet stretch of river that is particularly useful for beginners, classes, and river cleaning outings, says the suit.
The section is bordered at one end by a dam called the Seneca Break Rapids and features two access points for paddlers on the Maryland shore. Riley's Lock, where there is a county-run park, parking and youth camp headquarters, as well as the Violette Lock, which includes parking and a picnic area.
In June 2017, the Coast Guard put in place a rule establishing a "permanent safe area" between the Virginia coast and the Maryland coast for a distance of about two miles.
The paddlers were furious.
After instituting the rule, the agency gave the public a chance to weigh and received over 600 comments, all negative, according to the lawsuit.
A few weeks later, the former Coast Guard commander, Admiral Paul F. Zukunft, surprised paddlers by testifying before a committee of the House that the river would remain open on the Maryland side while Trump played golf.
The paddlers welcomed the change, which allowed Maryland access for more than a year, but was concerned that it could easily be reversed unless written.
Cruise passengers prefer that the Coast Guard limit access within 100 or 200 meters of the golf club on the Virginia side only.
Risa Shimoda, a longtime kayaker who lives in Takoma Park, said she's worried about the precedent created by a one-sided rule.
"If President Smith decides in 2025 to go golf at the club and close the river," she said, "it's really horrible."
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