The Supreme Court dealt President Biden a loss over his attempts to block funding for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that a district court in California should should “consider what further proceedings are necessary and appropriate in light of the changed circumstances in this case.” The California court previously ruled against President Trump’s allocation of Pentagon funds for the border wall.
According to The Daily Wire:
“The Supreme Court returned the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ‘with instructions to direct the District Court to vacate its judgments,’ the Supreme Court wrote in its Monday order,” Newsweek reported.
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had let the ruling of the district court stand, stating, “The panel affirmed the district court’s judgment holding that budgetary transfers of funds for the construction of a wall on the southern border of the United States in California and New Mexico were not authorized under the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2019.”
The Ninth Circuit used the environmental claims of the states of California and New Mexico in its June 2020 affirmation of the lower court’s ruling:
Concerning the injury in fact element of standing, the panel held that California and New Mexico alleged that the actions of the federal defendants will cause particularized and concrete injuries in fact to the environment and wildlife of their respective states as well as to their sovereign interests in enforcing their environmental laws. First, the panel held that California and New Mexico each provided sufficient evidence, if taken as true, that would allow a reasonable fact- finder to conclude that both states would suffer injuries in fact to their environmental interests, and in particular, to protect endangered species within their borders. Second, the panel also held that California and New Mexico demonstrated that border wall construction injured their quasi-sovereign interests by preventing them from enforcing their environmental laws.
The Supreme Court’s ruling helps advance the push to build the wall, especially as the U.S.-Mexico border continues to be overrun by thousands of illegal migrants.
