A second federal court has blocked Trump from taking $3.6 billion from the troops to pay for his border wall that Mexico was supposed to fund.
Via The Hill:
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.”
In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Speaker of the House Pelosi said:
For the second time this week, the Courts have resoundingly ruled against the President’s assault on the rule of law, on the Constitution of the United States and on the national security of the American people.
As the Courts continue to rule, the President’s plan to cancel military construction projects to pay for his ineffective, wasteful wall is clearly illegal, as he is stealing from appropriated funds, an action that was not authorized by constitutional or statutory authority. This action is another deeply disturbing example of the President’s ongoing campaign to negate the separation of powers that is the genius of our Constitution, as he attacks Congress’s exclusive constitutional ‘power of the purse.’
Trump can’t stop losing. The president was never going to have enough money to build his wall, but he has even less now that the courts are ruling that the United States has three branches of government for a reason. Trump can’t use congressionally appropriated funds for whatever he feels like doing.
The message is clear. If Congress won’t give him the money, Trump isn’t allowed to steal it.
The courts are stopping Trump and defending the constitution.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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