After a federal appeals court ruled in June that the government improperly diverted $2.5 billion of Pentagon counter-drug program money to build more than 100 miles of border wall, SCOTUS will now hear a the case. The Appeals Court ruled that only Congress could approve such a transfer. SCOTUS will also review a ruling that blocked the sending of asylum applicants to Mexico while they wait for their appeals to be heard.
Trump ordered the use of the Defense Department money last year after a fight over his budget that led to a partial government shutdown. It ended after Democrats approved money for border wall construction, but nowhere near what the president wanted.
“There is no emergency requiring the use of the armed forces along the U.S.-Mexico border, and construction of a border wall is not necessary to support such use of the armed forces,” the suit said. A separate law passed by Congress allows the use of Defense Department support only for building facilities needed to block drug smuggling at the border, they said.
