Sacramento, California - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, filed an appellate brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the states’ challenge to President Trump’s unlawful diversion of funding to construct a border wall.
In consolidated appeals, the states and the Sierra Club assert that the Trump Administration has unlawfully and unconstitutionally attempted to take nearly $2.5 billion of Department of Defense funding from the projects and programs to which it was appropriated by Congress and instead use it for the construction of a border wall. The states also discuss the irreparable harms to state sovereignty and the environment and natural resources that result from construction.
“The President doesn’t get to break the law just because he doesn’t like the law,” said Attorney General Becerra. “The President’s maneuver to divert taxpayer dollars violates the Constitution and risks critical services from reaching hardworking taxpayers and their families.”
In the brief, the states argue that the Trump Administration’s actions violate the U.S. Constitution, including the Appropriation Clause and separation of powers principles, intrude on Congress’s power of the purse, and exceed their authority under the law.