President Trump is blocked by second judge on military funds for border wall
SAN FRANCISCO – A second federal judge barred President Donald Trump from using military construction funds for his Mexico border wall, with a U.S. court ruling Wednesday in Oakland, echoing one Tuesday in El Paso, Texas.
The Trump administration and Congress remain at odds over how much taxpayer money to spend on border security as a government shutdown looms next week absent a budget agreement. A year ago, partisan fighting over the wall triggered a record 35-day partial shutdown. Both the El Paso and Oakland judges concluded Trump did an illegal end run around Congress when he moved to divert billions of dollars of funding toward wall construction after lawmakers refused to earmark more than $1.375 billion.
The president told supporters at a rally in Hershey, Pa., Tuesday that he had “started winning in court” on the wall. It isn’t clear whether he knew that shortly before he spoke, the El Paso judge issued an order barring the use of $3.6 billion in Defense Department construction funds.
Neither order prohibits the administration from using about $2.5 billion from the Pentagon’s drug interdiction budget. That’s consistent with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in July which let the administration move forward with building 100 miles of border fencing while the litigation continues.
But the Oakland judge had sharp
Businesses up and down Fifth Street were decorated for the occasion with painted windows and lights to welcome the crowds.
Many attendees said words for Trump’s use of the construction funds.
“The executive has made plain its determination to nonetheless proceed with the construction by any means necessary, notwithstanding Congress’ contrary exercise of its constitutionally-absolute power of the purse,” U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam said in Wednesday’s ruling. “As Justice Frankfurter explained long ago, that position both disregards the clear will of Congress and disrespects the whole legislative process and the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.”
Gilliam, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, ruled in challenges to Trump’s use of military funds brought by the Sierra Club and a coalition of nine states. their favorite part of the night was taking a ride in the horse-drawn carriage.
The Arbuckle Revitalization Committee brought this long forgotten tradition back to town to promote local businesses, said Lytal.
“All in all, we are so very pleased and are looking forward to next years event which will be even bigger!” said Lytal.