Ninth Circuit Affirms Environmental Waivers For Wall

Courthouse News reports:

The Ninth Circuit Monday affirmed the federal government’s authority to waive dozens of environmental laws to speed-up border wall construction near San Diego and Calexico, California, though one judge found it was a call for the Supreme Court, not the Ninth Circuit, to make.

In a 30-page opinion, U.S. Circuit Judges M. Margaret McKeown and Jacqueline Nguyen affirmed summary judgment in favor of the Department of Homeland Security in lawsuits filed by a handful of environmental organizations and California challenging the federal government’s waiver of 37 environmental laws under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

Other lawsuits challenging border wall construction in the Rio Grande Valley and near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico are pending.