Federal court blocks Trump administration’s reallocation of funds for the border wall

The New York Times reports, U.S. Judge Blocks Trump Plan to Shift $2.5 Billion to Pay for Border Wall:

A federal judge in Northern California on Friday permanently blocked the Trump administration from using $2.5 billion in contested funding to build barriers along the United States’ southwestern border, dealing a blow to the White House’s efforts to fund a border wall without congressional approval.

Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, who ruled at once on two pending lawsuits against the administration, stated President Trump’s efforts to shift Department of Defense funds toward the border project were “unlawful.”

The decision follows an earlier temporary injunction, issued last month, in which Judge Gilliam said the White House’s efforts did not “square with fundamental separation of powers principles dating back to the earliest days of our Republic.”

The White House had sought to direct $2.5 billion from counterdrug programs in the Department of Defense toward building the wall.

The president’s critics, who said he was overstepping his constitutional authority, denounced that action, which followed a monthslong impasse between the White House and Congress, and a partial government shutdown.

A pair of lawsuits soon followed: one filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition; and the other filed by the State of California and 19 other states.

Judge Gilliam issued decisions on both cases Friday. Combined, the rulings prevent the use of the funds on projects in El Paso, Tex.; Tucson and Yuma, Ariz.; and El Centro, Calif.

The president’s critics applauded the decision.

“All President Trump has succeeded in building is a constitutional crisis, threatening immediate harm to our state,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra of California said.

The Washington Post adds:

In his order granting a permanent halt on the construction, Gilliam also cleared the path for an immediate appeal.

* * *

Together with the U.S. Justice Department, both sides had asked Gilliam to speed up his ruling and enter final judgment so one of the president’s signature initiatives could quickly go before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

Depending on how fast the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decides this appeal, it is potentially headed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2019-2020 docket later in the term. There is likely to be a conflict among the circuit courts.

On a separate legal challenge to wall funding, U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden in Washington, D.C., in May tossed out a lawsuit by the Democrat-led House of Representatives to block the spending transfers, arguing that Trump unconstitutionally diverted appropriated funds in violation of Congress’s power of the purse.

The House has appealed that case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

So two appeals are currently in the pipeline headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.