ACLU wins ruling shutting down drumpf's fake "emergency" to build the wall
WTG ACLU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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ACLU - Verified account @ACLU
7:40 PM - 28 Jun 2019
Whew. This week, we:
✔️ Blocked the census citizenship question
✔️ Blocked Trump's illegal border wall
✔️ Filed Supreme Court briefs for LGBTQ workers' rights
✔️ Sued Georgia and Arkansas for banning abortion
✔️ Sued Florida for creating a poll tax for returning citizens
...
it looks like Sierra Club was involved as well.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-patrol-abuses/trumps-big-beautiful-wall-crumbles-court
Last night, for the first time, a federal judge made clear to President Trump he couldn’t get his wall by illegally diverting taxpayer money.
The judge’s ruling comes in an ACLU lawsuit on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC). Together, the Sierra Club and SBCC represent the communities who live in, protect, and treasure the lands and communities along our southern border. For years, these communities have engaged in the democratic process and successfully persuaded their congressional representatives to deny President Trump funding to build his wall.
Our lawsuit centers on the question of whether the president abused his power to divert funds for a border wall Congress denied him. Unfortunately for President Trump, the Constitution is clear on the matter: only Congress has the power to decide how taxpayer funds are spent. And Congress, like border communities, said no to the President’s wall.
Congress didn’t bow to Trump’s pressure even after he caused the longest government shutdown in U.S. history over his demands for billions of dollars for his wall. Congress allocated only a fraction of the money that Trump demanded, and imposed restrictions on where and how quickly any border barriers could be built.
In a blatant abuse of power meant to circumvent Congress, President Trump declared a national emergency on February 15, 2019, and announced he would illegally divert $6.7 billion from military construction and other accounts for the border wall project.
From the beginning, the emergency was obviously a sham. Trump said as much himself when he declared the emergency, saying he “didn’t need to do this” but he’d prefer to build the wall “much faster.” He added that he declared a national emergency because he was “not happy” that Congress “skimped” on the wall by denying him the billions he demanded.
Despite this, the Trump administration tried to argue in court last Friday that Congress never actually “denied” President Trump the billions of dollars he is now trying to take from the military. The court rejected the administration’s argument, reminding the administration that “the reality is that Congress was presented with—and declined to grant—a $5.7 billion request for border barrier construction.”
The court’s ruling blocks the sections of wall that the Trump administration announced would be built with military pay and pension funds. It also invites us to ask the court to block additional projects as they are announced in the future. The judge emphasized the government’s commitment to inform the court immediately about future decisions to build.
It may be easy to ridicule President Trump’s desperation for a border wall — an absurd and xenophobic campaign promise for which he has only himself to blame. But as pointless and wasteful as it may be, Trump’s campaign promise now threatens to cause irreparable and real damage to our constitutional checks and balances, the rule of law, border communities, and the environment.
The wall is part of an exclusionary agenda that President Trump has targeted, over and over, at people of color. From his notorious Muslim Ban, to his efforts to eliminate protections for immigrants from Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, courts have found “evidence that President Trump harbors an animus against non-white, non-European” immigrants. Trump has repeatedly justified his wall by lying about border communities, falsely claiming that America needs a wall.
Border communities know firsthand that walls are dangerous and wasteful. They divide neighborhoods, worsen dangerous flooding, destroy lands and wildlife, and waste resources. As our clients explained to the court, “we are a community that is safe, that supports migrants, that works well together and supports one another, that is worthy of existence.” What border communities truly need is infrastructure and investment, not militarization and isolation.
The court’s order is a vindication of border communities’ advocacy for themselves, and of our Constitution’s separation of powers. As the court wrote, “Congress’s ‘absolute’ control over federal expenditures—even when that control may frustrate the desires of the Executive Branch regarding initiatives it views as important—is not a bug in our constitutional system. It is a feature of that system, and an essential one.”
Thank you ACLU (my donations hopefully help the fight!). 
FEDERAL COURT PERMANENTLY BLOCKS BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-court-permanently-blocks-billions-dollars-border-wall-construction
JUNE 28, 2019
OAKLAND — A federal court today permanently blocked the Trump administration from accessing $2.5 billion in military funds for the president’s border wall, ruling that the administration’s attempt to transfer funds for a border wall Congress denied is unlawful. Wall construction using the funds, which the administration announced it would divert under counterdrug authorities, was set to begin as soon as Monday.
The ruling comes in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) challenging the president’s abuse of emergency powers.
Dror Ladin, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, who argued the case, said: “Congress was clear in denying funds for Trump’s xenophobic obsession with a wasteful, harmful wall. This decision upholds the basic principle that the president has no power to spend taxpayer money without Congress’ approval. We will continue to defend this core principle of our democracy, which the courts have recognized for centuries.”
On February 15, 2019, President Trump declared a national emergency so he could illegally divert $6.7 billion for the border wall project. The declaration came after the president put the country through the longest government shutdown in U.S. history over Congress’s refusal to fund his border wall. It also came after Congress allocated a small portion of the money that Trump demanded and imposed restrictions on where and how quickly any border barriers could be built.
While declaring the national emergency, Trump stated he “didn’t need to do this” but he’d prefer to build the wall “much faster.” He added that he declared a national emergency because he was “not happy” that Congress “skimped” on the wall by denying him the billions he demanded.
The administration identified three sources for the wall funds: $3.6 billion to come from military construction projects using the president’s emergency declaration; $2.5 billion from other military accounts under counterdrug authorities; and the remaining $601 million to come from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund.
U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam today granted the ACLU’s request, on behalf of the Sierra Club and SBCC, to permanently block the Trump administration from constructing the border wall using any of the $2.5 billion diverted under counterdrug authorities. The government has not yet taken any action on the $3.6 billion in military construction projects, and that question is not yet before the court.
“We applaud the court’s decision to protect our Constitution, communities, and the environment today,” said Gloria Smith, Managing Attorney at the Sierra Club. “We've seen the damage that the ever-expanding border wall has inflicted on communities and the environment for decades. Walls divide neighborhoods, worsen dangerous flooding, destroy lands and wildlife, and waste resources that should instead be used on the infrastructure these communities truly need.”
The ACLU, Sierra Club, and SBCC’s lawsuit argues the president is usurping Congress’s appropriations power and violating the clearly defined separation of powers inscribed in the Constitution. The border wall project — if carried out as directed under the president’s emergency proclamation — would cause irreparable harm to the environment and communities living at the border.
“We welcome the court’s decision to block Trump’s attempts to sidestep Congress to build deadly walls that would hurt communities living at the border, endanger wildlife, and have damaging impacts on the environment,” said Andrea Guerrero, a member of SBCC‘s steering committee. “Doubling down on the myopic enforcement-only policies of the past has failed our country for decades and border communities will continue to push back at any attempt to further militarize our region.”
If constructed, the wall sections would worsen flooding, destroy lands and wildlife, and waste resources along ecologically- and culturally-critical areas. These areas include the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, the San Bernardino and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuges, the San Pedro River, the Coronado National Memorial, and the Colorado River. The wall sections would also have divided border communities, including the Tohono O’odham Nation, Cocopah Indian Tribe, and ranches and households in Luna, Doña Ana, Pima, and Cochise counties.
The ruling is here: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/sierra-club-v-trump-order-granting-part-and-denying-part-plaintiffs-motion-partial
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THANK YOU, ACLU!!!!! 
I sent them a bonus donation tonight. Will up my monthly in the next week.
