The Fifth Circuit court of appeals has given Trump a huge victory, reversing a lower court decision that denied him the ability to use 3.6 billion in military funding to build the wall:
REUTERS – A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday put on hold a lower court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from using $3.6 billion in military construction funds to build a wall on the country’s border with Mexico.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay pending the Trump administration’s appeal of a Dec. 10 decision by a federal judge that barred the funding transfer.
In a 2-1 ruling, the panel noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had stayed an injunction in a similar border wall case from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court also said there was a “substantial likelihood” that the parties challenging the funding transfer – the county of El Paso, Texas, and the Border Network for Human Rights – lacked standing to sue the Trump administration.
According to the author, the two judges who voted to block the injunction were a Reagan appointee and a Trump appointee. The one dissenter was an Obama appointee, of course:
The three judge panel split 2-1 with Judges Edith Jones (a Reagan appointee) and Andrew Oldham (a Trump appointee) in favor and Judge Stephen Higginson (an Obama appointee) dissenting
— Ted Hesson (@tedhesson) January 9, 2020
He notes that the ruling clears the way for Trump to now access the money which will build 175 miles of border wall:
The move clears the way for the Trump administration to access money that CBP says will built up to 175 miles of border wall in “high-priority locations”
— Ted Hesson (@tedhesson) January 9, 2020