Fight Over “Big, Beautiful Wall” Continues: ACLU, Sierra Club Asks Supreme Court to Halt Construction of the U.S./Mexico Border Wall

Photo courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection website

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” between the United States and Mexico.  President Trump has frequently talked about construction of the wall.  A few weeks back, the New York Times reported on the progress of the construction. 

CNN reports that the American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition have asked the Supreme Court to block the construction of the much-discussed border wall. The request is part of an ongoing legal fight over the use of $2.5 billion from the Pentagon to construct parts of the wall. The legal proceedings over Defense Department funds stem from Trump’s national emergency declaration on the US-Mexico border last year. Trump extended the declaration this past February.

On SCOTUSBlog, Amy Howe offers details on the legal issues before the Court.  Less than a year ago, a divided Supreme Court allowed the administration to spend federal funds on the construction of the border wall while a legal challenge proceeded. Opponents of the wall now are asking the Court to order a temporary halt to the construction. Otherwise, they argued, the government will achieve “a complete victory despite having lost in every court,” because it will be able to finish the parts of the wall that are the subject of the ongoing litigation before that litigation concludes.

KJ