9TH CIRCUIT COURT DENIES USE OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT FUNDS FOR BORDER WALL
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9TH CIRCUIT COURT DENIES USE OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT FUNDS FOR BORDER WALL
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The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied the request of the Trump administration to unblock the use of $2.5 billion of Defense Department funds for border wall construction. The request came after the money reallocation was blocked by a lower court while the underlying lawsuit proceeds.
The three-judge panel ruled 2–1 on July 3 that the reallocation should remain blocked because, among other things, the plaintiffs had a good chance of proving the administration overstepped its constitutional authority.
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“Defendants’ attempt to reprogram and spend these funds … violates the Appropriations Clause and intrudes on Congress’s exclusive power of the purse,” wrote Judges Richard Clifton, a George W. Bush appointee, and Michelle Friedland, a Barack Obama appointee.
Judge Randy Smith, also appointed by Bush, dissented, saying “the majority has created a constitutional issue where none previously existed” and that the plaintiffs “lack a cause of action” to challenge the reallocation (pdf).
The Suit
On Feb. 15, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and announced that around $6.7 billion would be reprogrammed from other parts of the budget for border wall construction.
On Feb. 19, two nonprofits, the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition, filed a lawsuit alleging that the administration overstepped its constitutional and statutory authority in reprogramming the funds. . . .
On May 24, a federal district court in Oakland, California, blocked the administration from building parts of the wall in the Border Patrol sectors of El Paso, Yuma, El Centro, and Tucson, concluding that the plaintiffs were likely to prove that the administration overstepped its authority to move money around under the 2019 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.
What Does the Law Say?
Section 8005 of the act allows the Defense Department to reprogram some money “for higher priority items, based on unforeseen military requirements, than those for which originally appropriated” except in cases “where the item for which funds are requested has been denied by the Congress.”
The Pentagon argued that it received a request from the Homeland Security Department to help out with counter-drug trafficking activities along the border, including barrier construction, which it couldn’t foresee when it was requesting money from Congress for 2019. And because the Pentagon didn’t request the money for this purpose, Congress didn’t deny it.
Clifton and Friedland weren’t convinced, saying the statute should be interpreted more broadly. Because Trump wanted $5.7 billion for the wall construction and Congress only gave him about $1.4 billion, that should be interpreted as a “denial.”
Smith, on the other hand, dismissed such reasoning as irrelevant.
Overstepping the Section 8005 authority, he said, should be challenged under the Administrative Procedure Act, where the plaintiffs would have to show that they have been economically injured by the transfer of the funds.
Instead, “they assert aesthetic, recreational, and generalized environmental interests that will be affected, not by the transfer of funds, but by the building of the border wall,” he said.
“Nothing in § 8005 requires that aesthetic, recreational, or environmental interests be considered before a transfer is made, nor does the statute even address such interests.”. . .
Trump’s Wall
Trump has emphasized the necessity of the border wall to help solve issues of illegal immigration, human trafficking, including of children, and drug smuggling into the United States, which kills tens of thousands of Americans a year.
The situation at the border has deteriorated as the apprehensions of illegal crossers skyrocketed by some 135 percent in the first 8 months of fiscal 2019, compared with the same period a year before.
For months after Trump declared the emergency, Democrats stuck to denying the crisis at the border. On June 27, however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) backed down and agreed to let the House vote on a Senate bill without amendments that approved $4.6 billion of humanitarian aid to the border.
The bill doesn’t address construction of the wall.
(Excerpted from The Epoch Times, article by Petr Svab.)
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It is Now or never. With God all things are piossible. But we must come out of our prayer closets and take action. Pray Yes, But we must speak up and stand up now.
“Let God Arise and his enemies be scattered.” Let His Church Arise!
https://youtu.be/HHo-3LEcgQE Great video clip of speech “Give Me Liverty or Give Me Death.”
“Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!” This great speech if for us today! Read and scrool to bottom to watch on youtube.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
To avoid interference from Lieutenant-Governor Dunmore and his Royal Marines, the Second Virginia Convention met March 20, 1775 inland at Richmond–in what is now called St. John’s Church–instead of the Capitol in Williamsburg. Delegate Patrick Henry presented resolutions to raise a militia, and to put Virginia in a posture of defense. Henry’s opponents urged caution and patience until the crown replied to Congress’ latest petition for reconciliation.
On the 23rd, Henry presented a proposal to organize a volunteer company of cavalry or infantry in every Virginia county. By custom, Henry addressed himself to the Convention’s president, Peyton Randolph of Williamsburg. Henry’s words were not transcribed, but no one who heard them forgot their eloquence, or Henry’s closing words: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
Henry’s first biographer, William Wirt of Maryland, was three-years-old in 1775. An assistant federal prosecutor in Aaron Burr’s trial for treason at Richmond in 1807, and later attorney general of the United States, Wirt began to collect materials for the biography in 1808, nine years after Henry’s death. From the recollections of men like Thomas Jefferson, Wirt reconstructed an account of Henry’s life, including the remarks presented below.
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St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia
March 23, 1775.
MR. PRESIDENT: No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves, and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these war-like preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free² if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending²if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!
They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable²and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace²but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
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Source: Wirt, William. Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry . (Philadelphia) 1836, as reproduced in The World’s Great Speeches, Lewis Copeland and Lawrence W. Lamm, eds., (New York) 1973.
https://youtu.be/DbghWFMLyiA Watch video clip of speech!
Thank you for this! Beautiful! Paraphrasing, I think we are now at this very point. A question of freedom vs slavery. Are fleets and armies necessary to works of love and reconciliation? When will we be stronger, when guards are stationed in every house? Is there no retreat but in submission and slavery? We have a choice. The mind of Christ or the mind of the world. We have a just God who presides over the destinies of nations! AMEN AND AMEN!
We must not be weary warriors and fainting saints. We must continually STAND and renew our minds to the mind of Christ. Saul and King David went thru many victorious battles before the land became peaceful under King Solomon. Just like the walls of Jericho came flinging down, the walls of peoples minds must be torn down and turned to the mind of Christ to protect our USA with a border wall. The darkness will be brought to light! God said it! It is true! I continue to stand that the devil is a liar and he is defeated. God sees the beginning from the end. We are in a spiritual battle that the ending has already been declared a victory! We are in this world but not of this world. PRAISE BE TO OUR FEARLESS GOD! When I am weak GOD IS STRONG! Praise be to our Lord JESUS CHRIST! AMEN!
I stand in complete agreement, In the Name of Jesus.