Supreme Court OKs Pentagon funds for border wall

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Trump administration can now send construction crews to the U.S. southern border to build sections of a wall using $2.5 billion in Department of Defense funds. The five conservative justices on the court Friday reversed a lower court decision and lifted a freeze on Pentagon funds President Donald Trump sought for wall construction after declaring a national emergency in February. “Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall,” the president tweeted Friday night. “Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!”

What will the money buy? The Trump administration had already awarded four contracts using the Defense dollars to replace more than 100 miles of existing fencing in Arizona, California, and New Mexico. Trump had also earmarked $3.6 billion from military construction funds and $600 million from the Treasury Department’s asset forfeiture fund for wall construction, but those allocations were not at issue in this case and likely will proceed on their own and go toward other sections of the wall. Congress also approved $1.4 billion for border security in February.

Does this settle the issue? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., decried the decision but they cannot do anything to stop it. And an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the suit to the high court on behalf of the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition, said the fight “is not over” and the case will continue. But even a later court ruling in favor of the ACLU won’t topple an already constructed wall.