With five votes in favor and four against, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump to use US$2.5 billion for building parts of the southern border wall, a decision which was immediately rejected by human right defenders and environmental activists.
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"To permit the diversion of military funds for border wall construction will wall off and destroy communities, public lands, and waters in California, New Mexico, and Arizona," Gloria Smith, an attorney working with the Sierra Club, an environmental organization which sued to block such funds, said on Saturday.
“This is not over. We will be asking the federal appeals court to expedite the ongoing appeals proceeding to halt this irreversible and imminent damage from Trump's border wall," Dror Ladin, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), warned.
"Our Constitution’s separation of powers will be permanently harmed should Trump get away with pillaging military funds for a xenophobic border wall,” he explained.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the U.S. President expressed his satisfaction over the Supreme Court's decision.
"Wow! Big victory on the Wall. The U.S. Supreme Court... allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big win for border security," Trump tweeted minutes after the decision.
Initially intended for the fight against drugs, these US$2.5 billion are part of the US$6 billion Trump diverted for the construction of the wall under the national emergency he declared at the southern border.
In February, the U.S. Congress approved US$1.3 billion of the US$5.7 billion that Trump had requested to build some 234 miles of the wall in California, New Mexico and Arizona.
In order to get all the funding he wanted, the U.S. President declared a "national emergency", an administrative figure which allows him to modify the federal budget and use funds without the prior approval of Congress.
At that time, the ACLU, acting on behalf of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, filled a lawsuit before a court in Oakland, California, to prevent federal funds from being used on the border wall.
On May 30, the U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam ruled that Trump's proposal to build parts of the border wall with money appropriated for the Defense Department was unlawful. Yesterday, the Supreme court rejected Judge Guilliam's ruling.