Appeals court lifts block on $3.6 billion for Trump border wall plan

[Wingnut]

Oh my....  This is a surprise.

By JOSH GERSTEIN

01/08/2020 09:50 PM EST

Updated: 01/08/2020 10:19 PM EST

A divided federal appeals court has lifted a lower court’s order blocking $3.6 billion in military construction funds that President Donald Trump planned to use to finance an expanded and improved border wall.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order on Wednesday granting the Trump administration’s request to stay the injunction that U.S. District Court Judge David Briones, based in El Paso, Texas, issued last month.


The three-judge appeals court panel split along ideological lines, with two Republican appointees voting to temporarily set aside the injunction and the sole Democratic appointee dissenting.

The 5th Circuit panel’s majority did not provide a detailed explanation for its action, but noted that last July the Supreme Court stayed a similar injunction issued by a federal judge in Oakland, Calif.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/08/trump-border-wall-funds-block-096527

[libertybele]

Appeals Court Lifts Injunction Against Border Wall Funds

On Wednesday, a federal appellate court lifted an injunction by a lower court which had prevented $3.6 billion in military funds from being used for the construction of a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, ruled 2-1 to lift the injunction put in place in December by El Paso-based District Court Judge David Briones, a Clinton appointee.

The court’s two Republican appointees ruled that the plaintiffs in the suit — the city of El Paso and the Border Network for Human Rights — lacked the standing to challenge the administration’s use of the funds as an encroachment on Congress’s appropriation powers..............

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/appeals-court-lifts-injunction-against-border-wall-funds/

[PeteS in CA]

It was a frivolous lawfare lawsuit: the USSC had already slapped down (or upheld the slapping down of) a similar lawsuit in the Ninth Circuit; the plaintiffs had no substantial basis to claim standing to be able to sue. This slap-down happened in the 5th Circuit, and with the prior slap-down in the 9th, only the 10th Circuit (= New Mexico) hasn't been spoken to directly. I don't know if there are any similar lawfare lawsuits brought in New Mexico.