The US Supreme Court Friday 31-7-2020 rejected a request to halt the Trump administration’s construction of the southern border wall while litigation on its construction is pending before the nation’s highest court.

In February 2019, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency concerning security along the southern border. Utilizing executive powers from the order, Trump allocated $2.5 billion from the defense budget to construct the barrier.

The Sierra Club immediately challenged the use of executive authority, but in July of 2019, the Supreme Court stated that the administration can continue to build the wall while lawsuits are pending in lower courts and stayed an earlier injunction against construction. This June, the Ninth Circuit found the appropriation was unlawful as Congress had not allocated the money.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition subsequently requested that the Supreme Court lift its 2019 stay. The groups contended that the stay functionally allows the administration to complete the inappropriately-funded wall while the Supreme Court considers hearing the case.

Friday’s order rejected the plaintiffs’ proposition, though it does not provide any reasoning for the determination.

“Just over a year ago, I suggested “a straightforward way” to avoid irreparable harm to the parties in this litigation: stay the District Court’s injunction “only to the extent” that it “prevents the overnment from finalizing [relevant] contracts or taking other preparatory administrative action, but leave [the injunction] in place insofar as it precludes the Government from disbursing those funds or beginning construction.” Trump v. Sierra Club, 588 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2019) (slip op., at 2–3) (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part from grant of stay). ” Now, the Government has apparently finalized its contracts, avoiding the irreparable harm it claimed in first seeking a stay. The Court’s decision to let construction continue nevertheless, I fear, may “operat[e], in effect, as a final judgment.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 2). I would therefore lift the Court’s stay of the District Court’s injunction.”

See the Order