SETBACK

Federal Judge Blocks Part of Trump’s Border Wall Plans

The judge said Trump’s decision to divert funds for wall projects “does not square with fundamental separation of powers principles.”

A federal judge blocked parts of President Trump’s border wall plans late Friday, granting a preliminary injunction to stop the administration from using Defense Department funds for certain projects in Texas and Arizona. Judge Haywood Gilliam of the Northern District of California handed down a 56-page ruling saying Trump would have to halt projects relying on $1 billion in Pentagon counter-drug funding that was diverted to pay for certain expansions and enhancements of barriers at the southern border. “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,” Gilliam wrote. The ruling, which does not bar the administration from using other sources of funding for the projects, came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.