The Supreme Court of the United States of America has allowed the Trump administration to proceed with the shuffling of the funds to finance the border wall project. The project would reallocate military funds worth 2.5 billion USD to build the border wall in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The court gave a ruling against the verdict of a lower court which had said that the reallocation of the Defense Department money would violate federal law.
Trump had declared a national emergency earlier in February and indicated that funds worth 6.7 billion USD from military and other sources could be diverted for the construction of the wall. He elaborated that 3.6 billion USD from military construction funds, 2.5 billion USD from Defense Department and 600 million USD from the Treasury Department’s asset forfeiture fund could be used for the project.
Soon after the verdict, President Trump expressed his emotions via twitter as, “Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. 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!”
The said decision was announced in favor of Trump with a score of 5-4. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh voted in favor, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan voted against the Trump administration. Justice Stephen G. Breyer suggested a compromise, which was not considered by any of the others.
Staff Attorney of American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project Dror Ladin was not satisfied with the decision and commented that “This is not over. We will be asking the federal appeals court to expedite the ongoing appeals proceeding to halt the irreversible and imminent damage from Trump’s border wall. 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,”. The ACLU had also mentioned in their suit that the project would cause ecological contentions, as species like bighorn sheep would be highly affected by the wall.
