Arguments On Trump's $1 Billion Wall Spend In SF Appeals Court

EAST BAY, CA — A federal appeals court will hear arguments in San Francisco on Thursday on a bid by the administration of President Donald Trump for the right to spend an initial $1 billion in diverted federal funds on a border wall. U.S. Justice Department lawyers representing Trump and other officials are asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay of a preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam of Oakland last month that blocked the expenditure. Gilliam acted in a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and a coalition of border groups.

The stay, if granted, would suspend the injunction and allow the government to begin spending the money while the Justice Department conducts a full appeal of Gilliam's order. A three-judge panel of the appeals court will hear an hour of arguments at 2 p.m. and is expected to issue a written ruling later.

The $1 billion would be diverted from Army pay and pension funds and would pay for two sections of the wall in Texas and Arizona. It would be part of a total of $6.7 billion that Trump in February announced he planned to divert from several agencies after Congress refused to appropriate most of money he sought for wall construction.

The Justice Department contends the Defense Department is entitled to transfer money within its departmental budget to fight drug smuggling at the sites in El Paso, Texas and Yuma County, Ariz. The Sierra Club and border groups claim the fund diversion violates Congress's constitutional power to appropriate money.

—Bay City News