It pays to pack the courts

President Donald Trump scored a major victory at the Supreme Court on Friday, as the justices lifted a lower court order blocking a key part of his plan to expand the border wall with Mexico.

[...]

All the Republican-appointed justices voted in favor of allowing Trump to proceed with that aspect of his plan while litigation over the issue continues. All the Democratic-appointed justices dissented, except for Justice Stephen Breyer who said he would have allowed the contracting process to move forward but blocked actual construction.

[...]

The Supreme Court rarely explains its reasons for granting or denying a stay, but the order Friday declared that “the Government has made a sufficient showing at this stage that the plaintiffs have no cause of action to obtain review” of the decision to transfer the funds from a Pentagon account.

The statement suggested that the five justices in the majority agreed with the Trump administration’s arguments that the groups who obtained the injunction, the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, lacked a valid legal mechanism to enforce the budget rider Trump officials were allegedly violating.

That may not rule out the possibility that others who have sued over the same policy, including 20 states and the House of Representatives, might have stronger claims.

[...]

A judge dismissed the House’s suit last month but that ruling is on appeal.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted later Friday: "This evening’s Supreme Court ruling allowing @realDonaldTrump to steal military funds to spend on a wasteful, ineffective border wall rejected by Congress is deeply flawed. Our Founders designed a democracy governed by the people — not a monarchy."

  Politico

Makes no sense, Nancy. Is the Supreme Court your monarchy?

“Troubling development in the Supreme Court. We remain focused on arguments in our lawsuit currently in the Ninth Circuit. Bottom line: this fight isn’t over, and we have lots of fight in us. Our democratic institutions and core constitutional principles depend on it,” [California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who's leading the 20-state coalition suing over the wall] said.

[...]

Rulings from the district court in Oakland and from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals portrayed Trump’s move as an illegal end-run around Congress’s authority to control federal spending.

Certainly, it was that.



Smug bastard.  You know what that "smile" of his always makes me think of?