Dive Brief: - The controversial decision to close the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., for two years for renovations stemmed from the advice of the center’s facilities chief at the time, Joe Floca, according to testimony cited in a court ruling released Friday. President Donald Trump made the closure announcement Feb. 1. - The ruling by Judge Christopher Cooper of the D.C. federal district court, presiding over a lawsuit brought by an ex officio member of the center’s board, temporarily blocks the plan to close the building to expedite renovations. The ruling also orders the removal of Trump’s name from the building and restores voting rights to ex officio board members. - As a result of the ruling, Trump said he was ending his involvement in the center. “Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Friday. Dive Insight: Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio., filed a lawsuit in December contending that Trump and the Kennedy Center’s leadership acted illegally by approving a plan to close the center, adding Trump’s name to the institution and removing voting rights of ex officio board members like herself. On the closure issue, Judge Cooper said it’s within the board’s authority to close the institution down for renovations, but the facility must stay open while the board conducts an assessment of whether closure is the most appropriate course of action. He called the board’s approval of the closure an “ill-informed and seemingly preordained decision.” “The Board based its decision on an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information and neglected to consider the