(Bloomberg) -- A U.S. judge permanently barred President Donald Trump from using $3.6 billion in military construction funds to pay for a wall along the Mexico border.
Tuesday’s order follows an October ruling by U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso, Texas, in which he concluded that Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to redirect Defense Department appropriations to a wall project that Congress specifically refused to pay for was illegal.
Because the administration’s actions “are unlawful and the people’s representatives -- Congress -- declined to augment the border wall project as defendants attempt, the public interest would be served by halting them,” Briones wrote Tuesday.
Briones said he isn’t blocking the president from using funds earmarked for counterdrug activities, consistent with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in July that allowed the administration to move forward with building 100 miles of border fencing.
Read More: Trump Plan to Divert Military Budget to Border Wall Is Rejected
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Blumberg in San Francisco at pblumberg1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net
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