Federal judge blocks Trump from using Defense funds for parts of border wall

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/politics/federal-judge-trump-border-wall/index.html

"Although Friday's ruling does not prevent the Trump administration from using funds from other sources to build the projects, it's a setback for the President on a signature agenda item that has consistently been thwarted by Democrats in Congress. Construction on the projects affected by the ruling could have begun as early as Saturday, according to the ruling"........but now, nothing is being done.

The decision comes more than three months after Trump declared a national emergency to divert billions of dollars from the Pentagon for the construction of his border wall. The proclamation prompted a slew of lawsuits

The court blocked all the wall projects currently slated for immediate construction. If the administration begins illegally diverting additional military funds, we'll be back in court to block that as well," Dror Ladin, an ACLU staff attorney, said in a statement.

In February, Trump declared a national emergency to unlock billions of dollars in federal funds to build a wall on the southern border, bypassing Congress after lawmakers refused to meet his multi-billion dollar request for border wall funds. Trump and his top officials had argued that there was a "crisis" on the southern border, though Democrats pushed against that argument, saying there's no security crisis but rather a humanitarian one.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives also sued in an effort to stop Trump from using Defense funds for the border wall. A federal judge heard arguments in the case this week, though he did not say when he would rule.