A federal judge has ruled against the use of military funds by the Trump administration for barrier construction at the southern border.
Judge Haywood Gilliam ruled Friday in two lawsuits — one filed by the ACLU on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, and one filed by California on behalf of 20 states.
The plaintiffs argued that the funds had been denied by Congress already, were not needed for "unforeseen military requirement," and would raise constitutional questions.
The administration had intended to transfer Defense Department funds intended for anti-drug activities.
Originally posted by Nina: The only legal option. Of couse Trump can't funnel money that Congress has allotted to something into his pet projects. Constitution 101.
Let’s hope the Supreme Court doesn’t decide that it’s a political fight, and none of their business.
US President Donald Trump has again been thwarted in his attempt to use military money to fund his wall along the border with Mexico.
On Saturday, he lodged an appeal against a ruling by a judge blocking him from using defence department funds for anti-drug activities.
But a panel of the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the freeze, saying it was up to Congress to allocate funds....
Two of the three-judge panel in San Francisco agreed with the lower court's decision.
"As for the public interest, we conclude that it is best served by respecting the Constitution's assignment of the power of the purse to Congress, and by deferring to Congress's understanding of the public interest as reflected in its repeated denial of more funding for border barrier construction," the two judges wrote in their ruling.
