Moses opened the disputed park before any court ruled on its legality

Evidence

During 1926, Moses continued his technique of stalling the trial while talking as though there were not the slightest doubt about its outcome. In an article he wrote in May outlining the over-all progress of the state park plan, he said blandly, “The state has acquired Deer Range Park.” All through May, Moses’ attorneys continued filing motions and, when judges overruled the motions, appealing their decisions to higher courts, and when the higher courts threw out the appeals, taking them to still higher courts. Three separate dates were set for trial—and on each of them appeals were still pending and judges had to grant the commission postponements. All through May, Moses’ laborers were converting the ballroom of the old Taylor mansion into a cafeteria, the sitting room into a comfort station, setting up tents on the beach to serve as bathhouses and hacking rough roads through the woods so that motorists could reach them. By mid-May, “Deer Range State Park” was opened to the public. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 937

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Caro’s broader thesis about Moses using fait accompli — and to general scholarship on how bureaucratic actors convert contested projects into irreversible physical realities before losing the legal argument. — connects to: Moses appropriated private land before completing state-mandated negotiations or funding — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 808; A court found Moses had seized private property illegally and beyond his powers — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 828

Broader Connections

• Moses appropriated private land before completing state-mandated negotiations or funding #expands (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 808
• A court found Moses had seized private property illegally and beyond his powers #qualifies (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 828