The House of Representatives went to court on Tuesday trying to block Donald Trump from building a border wall with money appropriated for other purposes. The Trump administration is moving to spend about $6 billion in money intended for military construction and counterdrug efforts on Trump’s wall, and House lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden for a preliminary injunction to block the process of moving the money, rather than take on the national emergency declaration directly.
“Defendants are moving quickly to construct the border wall, and they have awarded contracts against funds that Congress did not appropriate for that purpose. And more contracts are coming soon,” the House’s 56-page legal motion reads. “Once made, these unconstitutional expenditures cannot be undone, and the grave institutional injury inflicted on the House cannot be remedied.”
The motion also reminds the judge, a Trump appointee, that in declaring his national emergency, Trump repeatedly said, “I didn’t need to do this.”
Trump’s national emergency declaration and wall-building plans face several other lawsuits, including one from 16 states and one from the Sierra Club and organizations along the border.