The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to divert funding intended for military pay and retirement and use it to construct the wall along the border with Mexico.
The legal challenge was filed initially by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition. The organizations prevailed in their initial lawsuits, and again on appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, successfully claiming the administration’s attempt to bypass Congress and take the $2.5 billion for the wall from Defense Department funding was illegal. However, the Supreme Court issued a stay on the lower federal court order, allowing wall construction to continue.
The plaintiffs contend that the wall is “desecrating ancestral and burial lands, destroying protected landscapes, and threatening wildlife, the ACLU stated in a press release. The administration claims that no government agency or organization has the authority to challenge its decision to use the diverted Defense Department funds to build the wall.
