Supreme Court Turns Aside Challenge to Trump’s Border Wall

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a legal attack on President Donald Trump’s border wall, refusing to question a law that let his administration waive more than 40 federal statutes to start construction.

The justices, without comment, rejected an appeal by four environmental and wildlife-protection organizations. The groups said Congress violated the Constitution by giving the secretary of Homeland Security unfettered discretion to disregard laws that protect public health, the environment, private property rights and Native American civil rights.

The rebuff boosts Trump as his administration rushes to complete as much fencing as possible before the November election. As a candidate, Trump promised to build a wall along the almost 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) frontier and make Mexico pay for it. More than 200 miles have been completed since he took office, though the vast majority replaced existing barriers.

Congress created the waiver authority in 1996 and then expanded it in 2005 while also sharply limiting the power of federal courts to review such actions.

In the case before the Supreme Court, groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity challenged six of the 14 waiver determinations Trump’s Homeland Security secretaries have issued. A federal trial judge rule against the groups, and they appealed directly to the Supreme Court, as the waiver law requires.

The case is Center for Biological Diversity v. Wolf, 19-975.

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