Delaware joins lawsuit challenging border wall spending

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings has joined 15 other attorneys general in a lawsuit to block President Trump’s unilateral spending of federal defense funds for construction of a border wall under the pretense of a national emergency.

The complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Northern California. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led the effort, joined by attorneys general of Delaware, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Virginia.

In a section of the complaint regarding potential harm to Delaware, the complaint states, “The diversion of any funding from Delaware’s National Guard, Dover Air Force Base, and any other military construction project, drug interdiction, or other law enforcement program in the State of Delaware will harm Delaware residents by depleting Delaware’s economy and draining the State of Delaware of needed fiscal resources.”

Jennings said the president’s actions are an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches and cannot be allowed.

“We cannot devolve into a system where Congress chooses not to fund something and the president ““ whoever it is in the White House ““ simply can grab other funds to do what he wants,” Attorney General Jennings said. “Everyone from the Founding Fathers to members of Congress to seventh-grade social studies students know that’s not the way it is supposed to work, and that it is dangerous to start down that road.”

The full filed complaint from the 16 states can be found here.