A federal judge in Washington, D.C. ruled Monday against House Democrats in their bid to block President Trump from reallocating Defense Department funds for the construction of his long-promised border wall.
U.S. district judge Trevor McFadden found that Congress should rely on a legislative approach to stop the president from funding the construction of his border wall through a national emergency declaration, rather than challenging the administration in court.
“Congress has several political arrows in its quiver to counter perceived threats to its sphere of power,” McFadden wrote in the decision. “These tools show that this lawsuit is not a last resort for the House. And this fact is also exemplified by the many other cases across the country challenging the administration’s planned construction of the border wall.”
Trump declared a national emergency in February in order to unilaterally appropriate $2.5 billion from the Defense Department’s anti-drug trafficking funds and $3.6 billion from its construction budget for the construction of a border wall.
Pelosi and fellow House Democrats argued in their suit that the allocation of those funds harmed Congress’s institutional authority by depriving it of the power of the purse granted to it under the Administrative Procedures Act.
The Department of Justice celebrated the decision on Monday as a defense of the administration’s constitutional prerogatives.
“The court rightly ruled that the House of Representatives cannot ask the judiciary to take its side in political disputes and cannot use federal courts to accomplish through litigation what it cannot achieve using the tools the Constitution gives to Congress,” a DOJ spokesman said. “The Department looks forward to continuing to defend the administration’s lawful actions to address the crisis at the southern border.”
While the ruling is a positive development for the administration, it does not guarantee the wall’s construction. It comes roughly one month after a federal judge in California temporarily blocked the administration from reallocating certain Pentagon funds for the wall’s construction, further impeding efforts to secure the $8.5 billion the president claims is necessary to build a satisfactory wall.