Judge rejects House suit to block transfer of billions of dollars for Trump border wall

Fact checking President Donald Trump on the border, immigration and drugs — The Associated Press

Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post June 3, 2019

WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Washington on Monday rejected a House lawsuit to block spending on President Donald Trump's plan to build a wall at the border with Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden of the District of Columbia denied a House request to temporarily stop spending on the wall saying the House lacked legal standing to sue the president for allegedly overstepping his power by diverting billions intended for other purposes to pay for it.

"While the Constitution bestows upon Members of the House many powers, it does not grant them standing to hale the Executive Branch into court claiming a dilution of Congress's legislative authority," McFadden wrote in a 24-page decision, continuing, "The Court therefore lacks jurisdiction to hear the House's claims and will deny its motion."

The decision is at odds with a May 24 ruling by a federal judge in California that temporarily blocked part of the plan because it was allegedly using money Congress never appropriated for that purpose.

A central issue for both courts is whether diverting the funds is an illegal act that violates the constitutional separation of powers between government branches. Both challenges were brought shortly after the president declared a national emergency along the southern border, but the plaintiffs in California included border communities and environmental groups.

The judge in Washington never reached the merits of the Democratic-led House's complaint, ruling instead that a single chamber of Congress had "several political arrows in its quiver" remaining to address disputes with a president, and could not show that it needed courts to intervene as "a last resort."

McFadden granted that the case "presents a close question," and he added that his ruling "does not imply that (the full) Congress may never sue the Executive to protect its powers." Still, he said the Constitution provides the House other levers to use against the executive, including specifically denying funds, passing other legislation, conducting hearings and investigations, or overriding a president's veto.

McFadden's order effectively kills the House suit, which sought to block the administration from tapping not only $1 billion already transferred from military pay and pensions accounts but also money from an emergency military construction fund that the administration said it intends to transfer but has not yet moved.

McFadden's decision ran counter to a 2015 ruling that found the then GOP-led House could sue the Obama administration for allegedly spending on an Affordable Care Act program that Congress never approved, a ruling that would have marked the first time the House was able to challenge an administration in court. The case was settled before it withstood appeal.

McFadden wrote that "Applying Burwell (the 2015 decision) to the facts here would clash with binding precedent holding that Congress may not invoke the courts' jurisdiction to attack the execution of federal laws."

He added: "The Executive and Legislative Branches have resolved their spending disputes without enlisting courts' aid," he said, finding Congress had many other levers to deploy in its conflict with a president. "The House thus 'lack(s) support from precedent,' and 'historical practice appears to cut against (it) as well," he wrote.

In a hearing last month, McFadden had said it was "problematic" whether the House had legal standing to sue as a single chamber of Congress and said that is a "significant issue in this case."

On May 24, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, of the Northern District of California, said that the parties challenging Trump's actions in that case had a good chance of prevailing on their claims that the administration is acting illegally in shifting money from other programs to pay for the wall.

Gilliam is a 2014 appointee of President Barack Obama. He ruled in response to lawsuits brought by the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition.

The court in California ruled against using the already transferred funds and blocks projects slated for immediate construction. The court said it would come back with a ruling on the emergency military construction funds once the administration actually shifts them. The decision applies to wall segments around Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas.

With some contracts already awarded for construction, Gilliam said that allowing work to go forward before the legal issues have been fully resolved could cause irreparable harm. He also said plaintiffs can come back to seek injunctions if the Trump administration announces additional projects at the border.