The United States Supreme Court ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump can use $2.5 billion in military funding to build the border wall along the U.S. southern border.
USA Today reports that the Supreme Court’s “order temporarily settles just one of several skirmishes between the Trump administration and House Democrats, ‘blue’ states led by California, and environmental groups over border wall funds.”
Trump responded to the news in a tweet, writing, “Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!”
The Supreme Court’s ruling will allow the administration to build over 100 miles of Trump’s border wall along the U.S. southern border in Arizona, New Mexico, and California, which Bloomberg noted is Trump’s “biggest step yet toward erecting his long-promised wall.”
“The 30-foot steel bollard fencing will replace barriers that the Trump administration says are dilapidated and ineffective,” Bloomberg continued. “Some of those existing barriers are designed only to prevent vehicles from crossing and don’t stop pedestrians.”
Axios added that the president “wants roughly $8 billion to build a wall on U.S.-Mexico border, $3.6 billion of which he plans to access with emergency powers.”
The five conservative Supreme Court Justices ruled in favor of the Trump administration while the four liberal justices would not have allowed construction to start.
“The $2.5 billion had been shifted from various programs including personnel and recruiting, Minuteman III and air launch cruise missiles, E-3 aircraft upgrades and the Afghan security forces training fund,” CNN reported. “The Pentagon said it was able to move that money due to uncovered cost savings as part of a process known as ‘reprogramming.’ The money was moved into a Defense Department counter-drug account that is authorized to spend money on the construction of border barriers.”
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