Trump’s 2019 Border Wall Spending Rebuffed by Appeals Court
- Panel finds $2.5 billion transfer of funds unconstitutional
- U.S. Supreme Court had previously sided with administration
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The Trump administration’s transfer last year of $2.5 billion of Defense Department funds intended for Army personnel to help pay for a wall along the Mexican border violated the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court said.
The 2-1 decision Friday by the San Francisco-based court may be largely symbolic because the U.S. Supreme Court said in July that the organizations that sued, the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, probably will lose their argument that they have legal right to challenge the Defense Department’s compliance with the law. The Supreme Court allowed the government’s use of the funds during the litigation.