Can Trump's Wall ‘Emergency’ Stand Up in Court?
A border fence stands in the city of Tijuana, Mexico.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Feb. 15 to reallocate about $7 billion for his promised border wall. In the wake of his announcement, there’s been a flurry of lawsuits filed in federal courts from Washington D.C. to California. The primary argument in the suits is that the president circumvented Congress’s constitutionally protected authority to determine how taxpayer money is spent.
The list is long. There are five lawsuits: one filed by sixteen states including California; one by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club; the county of El Paso, Texas; the Center for Biological Diversity; and a wildlife refuge along with three landowners along the border. They are all seeking to stop Trump from unilaterally reallocating funds from the federal budget or using military resources to start construction along the border.