Main: A Miami-Dade College parking lot, the site Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed for President Donald Trump’s presidential library, sits beside the Freedom Tower, left, on Sept. 23, 2025, in Miami (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File). Right inset: President Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up after stepping off Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., on Friday, July 31, 2026, following travel from Camp David (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).
A federal judge in South Florida has halted an effort by plaintiffs to begin “limited discovery” into the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc., pausing the case while he considers threshold arguments that could end the lawsuit altogether.
In a paperless order issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Armando Ruiz II found that President Donald Trump and state defendants, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, had shown “good cause” to stay discovery until the court rules on motions to dismiss the challenge to the proposed presidential “library.”
Ruiz, who was appointed by Trump, said questions involving presidential immunity, Eleventh Amendment immunity and the plaintiffs’ standing should be addressed first because, if the defendants prevail, “the entire case” would be disposed of before discovery becomes necessary.
“Defendants advance immunity defenses, and Plaintiffs’ bases for standing are clearly contested in Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss,” the judge wrote.
The lawsuit was filed in May by Overtown Farms, a Miami nonprofit urban farm and market co-founded by historian and psychology professor Marvin Dunn and doing business as Sistrunk Seeds Inc., along with student Carmen Salcedo and other individual plaintiffs who say they can see the Miami-Dade College parcel from their homes. The complaint highlights Trump’s own statement that the planned “library” on the MDC parking lot is “most likely going to be a hotel[.]”
At the heart of the case is the claim that Florida Republicans’ transfer of 2.63 acres of valuable Miami land with “waterfront views” — estimated by the plaintiffs to be worth about $300 million — to the Trump Library Foundation amounts to an unconstitutional emolument.
The plaintiffs also point to Eric Trump’s role as one of the foundation’s three named trustees, arguing that the Constitution bars presidents from receiving emoluments not only directly but also indirectly, including through immediate family members or corporate entities they formally or informally control.
The Justice Department pushed back sharply, calling the lawsuit “ambitiously novel” and “illogical” and warning that, under the plaintiffs’ theory, presidents stretching from George Washington to Joe Biden could be accused of constitutional violations.
As an example, government lawyers said former Presidents Barack Obama and Biden held “U.S. Treasury notes and bills during their tenure” and earned interest “from the United States” while serving in office.
Plaintiffs countered that the government’s attempt to block discovery by invoking immunity was “self-serving,” reflected “panic,” and amounted to “much ado about nothing.”
Ruiz was not persuaded, leaving discovery frozen while the dismissal arguments play out.
“[A]t this juncture, case-dispositive challenges persist that may prove to be successful,” Ruiz said.
The post Lawsuit over Trump ‘library’ teeters on the brink as judge shuts down discovery to hear DOJ defenses that may ‘dispose of the entire case’ first appeared on Law & Crime.
