US Judge Blocks Funds For Donald Trump’s Border Wall Plan

Washington: A US federal judge has passed an order temporarily blocking President Donald Trump’s plan to build part of a Mexico border wall with funds secured under his national Emergency declaration. The ruling was passed by US District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam of Oakland, California, on Friday night after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Sierra Club environmental organization and the Southern Border Communities Coalition. Another was filed by a coalition of 20 US states.

“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,” the judge said in his temporary injunction. Although the ruling does not prevent the Trump administration from using funds from other sources to build the projects, it’s a setback for the President on a signature agenda item that has consistently been thwarted by Democrats in Congress, CNN reported. (IANS)

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