Federal Judge blocks Donald Trump from reallocating $2.5 billion in defense money for building the wall

  Donald Trump’s plan to reallocate $2.5 billion in defense money to build the wall on the southern border has been making its way through the courts. Back in May a Judge partially blocked the plan by claiming there were certain areas along the border where the President could not use defense funding, and apparently last night a Federal Judge blocked the rest of the plan. Here is more: 

A federal judge in California barred the Trump administration Friday night from reallocating $2.5 billion to construct border barriers.

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, an Obama appointee, expanded an earlier order and forbade the government from moving forward with specific border wall projects in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. He also turned the previous order into a permanent injunction.

“Congress considered all of defendants’ proffered needs for border barrier construction, weighed the public interest in such construction against defendants’ request for taxpayer money, and struck what it considered to be the proper balance — in the public’s interest — by making available only $1.375 billion in funding, which was for certain border barrier construction not at issue here,” Gilliam’s order reads.

Elsewhere in his decision, Gilliam said government lawyers were advancing “an argument that the court should not enjoin conduct found to be unlawful because the ends justify the means. No case supports this principle.”

  The Judge also refused to issue a stay pending the results of the upcoming appeal. This will now be headed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is usually a death knell for anything conservative. However Donald Trump has made it a priority to remake the 9th Circuit and slowly but surely he appears to be doing just that. Recently the 9th Circuit has made two decisions in the President’s favor and this could be a great test of how much progress he has made and how much more is needed.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium