A joint lawsuit was filed on Monday challenging the President’s use of emergency powers in his quest to build a wall along the southern border of the United States.
The suit includes 16 U.S. states:
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Virginia–all Dem controlled whether through their attorneys general, governors, legislatures, or in some cases all three.
Read the full lawsuit here:
The suit claims that President Trump doesn’t have the constitutional powers to appropriate funds to build the wall, stating that Congress, not the president, ultimately controls spending.
The lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court of San Francisco reads in part:
“Contrary to the will of Congress, the President has used the pretext of a manufactured ‘crisis’ of unlawful immigration to declare a national emergency and redirect federal dollars appropriate for drug interdiction, military construction, and law enforcement initiatives toward building a wall on the United States – Mexico border.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also announced Friday, after President Trump declared the National Emergency, that they would be filing a lawsuit challenging the President’s declaration.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero issued the following statement:
“By the president’s very own admission in the Rose Garden, there is no national emergency. He just grew impatient and frustrated with Congress, and decided to move along his promise for a border wall ‘faster.’ This is a patently illegal power grab that hurts American communities and flouts the checks and balances that are hallmarks of our democracy. We will be filing a lawsuit early next week. As the country’s premier defender of civil liberties and civil rights, the ACLU will always fight to ensure a robust system of checks and balances on the power of the executive, which is critical to safeguarding our democracy and defending rights.”
According to the ACLU website, they plan to argue President Trump’s “use of emergency powers to evade Congressional funding restrictions is unprecedented and that 10 U.S.C. § 2808, the emergency power that Trump has invoked, cannot be used to build a border wall.”
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