Federal Judge Blocks Diversion Of Military Construction Money For Border Wall

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/7869...f-military-construction-money-for-border-wall

A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from using $3.6 billion in funds allocated by Congress for military construction projects to help pay for a wall on the southern border.

U.S. District Judge David Briones of El Paso ruled that the administration's use of an emergency proclamation last February to divert those funds to the border wall is unlawful.

The ruling found that the administration was within the law in using an additional $2.5 billion intended for drug interdiction efforts for border wall construction.

"The President's emergency proclamation was a blatant attempt to grab power from Congress," said Kristy Parker, counsel for the nonpartisan organization Protect Democracy, which represented the plaintiffs, in a statement. "Today's order affirms that the President is not a king and that our courts are willing to check him when he oversteps his bounds."

The suit was brought by El Paso County and the Border Network for Human Rights. It argued that the administration overstepped its authority by "declaring a national emergency and violating laws of Congress limiting funds for barriers at the United States-Mexico border."

The county also argued that it would suffer reputational and economic harm from the border wall project because the president's emergency declaration created the impression that the border city was dangerous. In October, Briones, a Clinton appointee, ruled that such claims had merit.

In a related case in California, a U.S. district judge last June blocked use of the drug interdiction funds for border wall construction. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a July order, said the Trump administration can proceed with construction while it appeals the case, which is now before the 9th Circuit.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Another one this week.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...ge-blocks-trump-from-using-military-funds-for

Second federal judge blocks Trump from using military funds for border wall

A federal judge in California ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration could not use military funds for border wall construction.

Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, an Obama appointee, ruled that the administration's plan to reallocate defense funding to a series of border construction projects is unlawful.

Gilliam said in his decision that it appeared that the administration had tried to use military funds to circumvent congressional approval, writing that "the border barrier projects Defendants now assert are 'necessary to support the use of the armed forces' are the very same projects Defendants sought—and failed—to build under [the Department on Homeland Security's] civilian authority, because Congress would not appropriate the requested funds."

It's the second such ruling in as many days, coming just after a federal judge in Texas similarly ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by El Paso and a nonprofit.

After the president signed a funding bill in February that didn't include all of the $5.7 billion that he had requested for border wall construction, he signed an executive action declaring a national emergency at the southern border that required the use of the armed forces.

“This ruling confirms that the president has no authority to raid military construction funds for his xenophobic wall,” Dror Ladin, an attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a statement. “By putting an end to the president’s power grab, this ruling protects our democracy’s separation of powers, the environment, and border communities.”

 

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/03/rand-paul-trump-wall/39145265/

Sen. Rand Paul parting ways with Trump on border wall

Washington – Opponents of President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border appear to have enough Senate votes to reject his move, now that Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky has said he can’t go along with the White House.

The House has voted to derail the action, and if the Senate follows later this month, the measure would go to Trump for his promised veto.

Three other Republican senators have announced they’ll vote “no” – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Paul makes it four, and assuming that all 47 Democrats and their independent allies go against Trump, that would give opponents 51 votes – just past the majority needed.

Congress is unlikely to have the votes to override.

“I can’t vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress,” Paul said at a GOP dinner Saturday night at Western Kentucky University, according to the Bowling Green (Ky.) Daily News.

 

[Swordsmyth]

This will be overturned.

If congress doesn't want the president to have this kind of emergency power they can repeal the law giving it to him.