A Florida judge temporarily blocked on Tuesday the transfer of a prime property in downtown Miami to President Trump for his presidential library, saying that a state college had failed to provide reasonable public notice before taking steps to convey the land it owned.
Judge Mavel Ruiz of Florida’s 11th Judicial Circuit found that the board of trustees of Miami Dade College most likely violated the state’s Sunshine Law, which requires a certain degree of transparency in government. She said that lawyers working on the paperwork to deed the property to the nonprofit that is raising money for Mr. Trump’s presidential library should temporarily pause that work.
Judge Ruiz’s ruling does not permanently block the state from conveying the property to Mr. Trump, as Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials voted to do on Sept. 30. The college trustees could meet again, this time providing more specific public notice, for the property transfer to be properly completed.
“It is understood that the board can provide the reasonable disclosure and convey this property as they see fit,” Judge Ruiz said in her ruling, which followed hearings on Monday and Tuesday. “That’s why this is not a case, at least for this court, rooted in politics.”
At issue was a special meeting the board held on Sept. 23. There, trustees voted without discussion to transfer the 2.63-acre property with waterfront views to the state. The meeting lasted less than five minutes.
Mr. DeSantis and the Florida cabinet — the state attorney general, agriculture commissioner and chief financial officer — then met on Sept. 30 to hand over the property to Mr. Trump’s foundation.
The college received a letter from the state Office of Cabinet Affairs on Sept. 16 requesting the conveyance without any explanation. There had been public speculation over the summer about Mr. Trump and his advisers eyeing the property.
The only public notice issued ahead of the Miami Dade College trustees’ meeting said that the board would “discuss potential real estate transactions,” without any specifics.
On Tuesday, the judge granted a temporary injunction on the property transfer sought by Marvin Dunn, a Miami historian, who said the public should have been given specific notice about, and an opportunity to comment on, the property transfer before it was approved.
Lawyers for the board countered that they had given ample notice about the meeting and had met the minimum specificity required by state law.
“The Sunshine Law does not require an agenda,” Carmen Manrara Cartaya, a lawyer for the board, said in Monday’s hearing.
Jesus M. Suarez, another lawyer for the board, said the trustees planned to appeal the judge’s decision, saying in an email after the ruling that the meeting was “lawfully noticed in all respects.”
The Sunshine Law does not require much specificity in such a notice, Judge Ruiz acknowledged. But she cited prior case law that found that “fair and reasonable” notice should apprise the public of matters that might affect their rights and afford them “the opportunity to appear and present their views.”
“The court does not believe that the notice was reasonable,” she said.
Miami Dade College bought the property for about $25 million in 2004. Its value today is listed by the county at more than $67 million, but that is just a fraction of its likely market value, which at least one real estate consultant has pegged at $360 million at the minimum.
Patricia Mazzei is the lead reporter for The Times in Miami, covering Florida and Puerto Rico.
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