President Trump is fighting battles on many fronts. he has the Democrats unwilling to lift a finger at the border.
So he took on the problem alone and executed his solutions only to have to defend them in court. He has won some and he has lost and while this decision is a setback, it is not the final decision.
But it will take time and the fact is we don’t have time to solve the crisis – we have to act, swiftly and decisively.
From Fox: A federal judge on Friday blocked the use of military funds to build a wall along portions of the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam ruled against the Trump administration Friday in two lawsuits, one filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, and the other by the State of California – a lawsuit which was joined by more than a dozen other states.
As part of the rulings, Gilliam issued a permanent injunction against the administration’s attempt to move billions of dollars from the Department of Defense budget to fund segments of the wall, according to The Hill.
Gilliam had initially ruled last month to temporarily halt the use of military funds to build sections of the wall, which was part of President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration in February.
The judge’s reasoning is that the president exceeded his authority by diverting federal funds without congressional approval.
CNN reports the rulings prevent $2.5 billion in federal funds from being used for wall construction at sites in New Mexico, California, Arizona and Texas.
Trump had been ready to break ground on parts of the border wall as early as Monday morning, according to Bloomberg.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra tweeted: “Tonight’s court rulings critically stop Trump’s illegal money grab to divert $2.5 billion of unauthorized funding for his pet project. As we showed, all he has succeeded in building is a constitutional crisis, threatening immediate harm to CA.”
From Time:
Speaking Saturday at a press conference marking the end of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump called the decision “a disgrace.”
“So we’re immediately appealing it and we think we’ll win the appeal,” he went on to say. “There was no reason that that should have happened. And a lot of wall is being built.”
The decisions are in line with Gilliam’s ruling last month that blocked work from beginning on two of the highest-priority projects — one spanning 46 miles (74 kilometers) in New Mexico and another covering 5 miles (8 kilometers) in Yuma, Arizona.
But the fight is far from over. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to take up the same issue of using military money next week.
At issue is President Donald Trump’s February declaration of a national emergency so that he could divert $6.7 billion from military and other sources to begin construction of the wall, which could have begun as early as Monday.
Trump declared the emergency after losing a fight with the Democratic-led House that led to a 35-day government shutdown.
The president identified $3.6 billion from military construction funds, $2.5 billion from Defense Department counterdrug activities and $600 million from the Treasury Department’s asset forfeiture fund.
The judge Friday didn’t rule on funding from the military construction and Treasury budgets.
