Federal appeals court rules Trump’s use of military funds for border wall unlawful News
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Federal appeals court rules Trump’s use of military funds for border wall unlawful

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded Friday that US President Donald Trump’s unilateral diversion of $3.6 billion from the Department of Defense budget to fund a border wall on the US-Mexico border was unlawful. The court concluded that 10 USC § 2808, which permits “military construction projects, not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces,” did not permit for the diversion of military funds to fund a border wall.

The border wall fight arose during the December 2018-January 2019 government shutdown. Congress needed to pass a new budget, but could not agree with Trump’s request for $5.7 billion to build the border wall. Once Trump acquiesced, he declared an emergency order in February 2019 over illegal border crossings. He then ordered than $3.6 billion dollars be used to fund the border wall, under the theory that the border wall was a military project.

The court reasoned that the border wall was not a military installation because § 2801 defines military installations as the following:

The term “military installation” means a base, camp, post, station, yard, center, or other activity under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of a military department or, in the case of an activity in a foreign country, under the operational control of the Secretary of a military department or the Secretary of Defense, without regard to the duration of operational control.

The court also rejected the federal government’s argument that a border wall could constitute “other activity” mentioned in § 2801. The court reasoned that the federal government’s argument would transform “other activity” into meaning “any activity.”

Under the Ninth Circuit’s decision, the Trump administration must halt further construction of the border wall immediately.

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