Judge Blocks Emergency $1 Billion for Border Wall

A federal judge in Oakland, California, is blocking a $1 billion portion of President Donald Trump’s $8 billion emergency budget for building the border wall.

The blocked project used $1 billion allocated by Congress for anti-drug accounts. The preliminary injunction will apply while the judge fully considers the lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, which includes leaders from pro-migration and environmental groups, as well as from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“Plaintiffs also have shown a likelihood of success as to their argument that Defendants fail to meet the ‘unforeseen military requirement’ condition for the reprogramming of funds under Section 8005,” said the judge, U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam.

Trump admin asks Spanberger, Virginia officials not release illegal charged with groping high school girls

Trump voter ID push faces Senate test as GOP rebels threaten to sink bill

Viktor Orban faces uphill battle to hold leadership as opposition hits him on Russia ties and accusations of corruption

Where things stand with Iran war in its third week

Minnesota bill would ban warrants allowing police to collect data from devices near a crime scene

Jasmine Crockett defends her security guard who was killed in police standoff, wanted for impersonating cop

ABC News Left Out Crucial Context In Story About Iran Drone Threat To California

Anti-ICE agitators blow cover in Boston, allowing child rape suspect to evade arrest for weeks

Utah children’s book author Kouri Richins convicted in husband’s murder

Search for missing retired Air Force general enters third week as investigators probe new clues

Trump questions Newsom’s fitness for White House, citing his dyslexia

Court allows DOJ to proceed with appeal over law firm executive orders

Trump lawyer in Jack Smith case draws conservative backing after DOJ praise rattles ‘elite’ legal conference

Illegal immigrant held on ICE detainer in Charlotte murder as disturbing details surface

Vance accuses media of trying to ‘drive a wedge’ between him and Trump over Iran

The administration’s “argument that the need for the requested border barrier construction funding was ‘unforeseen’ cannot logically be squared with the Administration’s multiple requests for funding for exactly that purpose dating back to at least early 2018,” he added.

The lawsuit also suggested that another $1.5 billion may be blocked because, in part, “the Court finds that Plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of irreparable harm to their members’ aesthetic and recreational interests in the areas known as El Paso Sector Project 1 and Yuma Sector Project 1.”

Gilliam was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama in 2014.