The Supreme Court decided on Friday that the Trump administration can use funds from the Department of Defense to construct part of the border wall that the government has deemed necessary to protect national security.
The decision allows for $2.5 billion from the Defense Department to be spent now while a court battle is underway over whether the government had the authority to reallocate funds that were not appropriated for the wall. The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the money to be used while the court battle plays out.
The court said that the decision was in favor of the Trump administration because it had made a “sufficient showing” that the challengers did not have the legal right to bring the case.
CNN writes that the liberal justices – Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – had said in the brief that they would have blocked the funds, while the fourth justice who voted against the administration, Stephen Breyer, wrote that he would have allowed the government to use the funds to finalize the terms for contractors, but block the money from being utilized for the building of the wall.
The Supreme Court’s decision gives the President a much-needed win and a major talking point on his campaign trail. He applauded the decision Friday, tweeting, “The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!”
Earlier this month, a panel of judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals barred the administration from transferring the funds while appeals played out, noting that the use of the Defense Department money “violates the constitutional requirement that the Executive Branch not spend money absent an appropriation from Congress.”
Some lawmakers criticized the decision, threatening to take away the Pentagon’s ability to transfer money, which the Defense Department has acknowledged would be devastating.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Friday evening that they would “be asking the federal appeals court to expedite the ongoing appeals proceeding to halt the irreversible and imminent damage from Trump’s border wall.”
“Border communities, the environment, and our Constitution’s separation of powers will be permanently harmed should Trump get away with pillaging military funds for a xenophobic border wall Congress denied,” said Dror Ladin, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project.
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