The Ninth Circuit Court of appeals ruled yesterday that Trump’s re-allocation of military funds for construction of his border wall was illegal, upholding a December 2019 ruling from a district court.
As background, after Congress had allocated $1.3 billion instead of the $5.7 billion Trump had requested, Trump invoked the National Emergencies Act to declare an emergency at the southern border. The administration then decided to take over $3 billion reserved for construction projects within the military and use it for the border wall instead.
The Ninth Circuit panel found that the diversion of funds to be unlawful and that it avoided the constitutional principle of separation of powers, including the legislative branch’s control of funding.
Particularly in the context of this case, where Congress declined to fund the very projects at issue and attempted to terminate the declaration of a national emergency (twice), we cannot interpret the statute to give the Executive Branch unfettered discretion to divert funds to any land it deems under military jurisdiction.
In 2019, a U.S. District Court granted summary judgment to multiple states and advocacy groups who sought to halt construction. Yesterday’s decision lifts a stay on the district court’s order, putting an immediate stop to all border wall construction.
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