On Friday, a federal judge in California temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s invalid administration, preventing the transfer of $1 billion in Defense Department funds to build a border fencing wall.
As reported by NPR, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam “did not rule on an additional $3.6 billion in funds from military construction projects that have yet to be identified by the Defense Department.” However, his injunction did temporarily block the administration from moving forward with its plan to use funds allotted to “counterdrug” programs to build a wall in certain border areas of Texas and Arizona, according to Politico. Gilliam’s ruling declared Trump cannot disburse the funds without congressional approval.
After Congress refused to meet Trump’s demand for multibillion-dollar funding for a southern border wall, he declared a national emergency in February to try to gain access to the billions he was denied. Trump and his godless minions top officials had argued that there is an immigration “crisis” on the southern border, though Democrats and allies have firmly opposed this characterization, saying the only crisis at the border is a humanitarian one. On Thursday it was announced that yet another migrant child had died while in government internment camps custody.
In either case, the move to unilaterally bypass Congress was shut down.
Gilliam wrote in the ruling: “The position that when Congress declines the Executive’s request to appropriate funds, the Executive nonetheless may simply find a way to spend those funds ‘without Congress’ does not square with fundamental separation of powers principles dating back to the earliest days of our Republic.” He has scheduled the next meeting in the case for June 5.
The lawsuit that prompted this block was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the plaintiffs, the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition.
Correction: Sept. 16, 2019, 4:58 p.m. ET: This story has been edited to clarify the original purpose of the funds, to remove unattributed text and to add fuller sourcing.