House Democrats are suing the Trump administration over the border wall

House Democrats plan to sue the Trump administration over the president’s attempts to reauthorize funds for a southern border wall, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday.

In February, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in an effort to obtain roughly $8 billion in funding for the border wall, a last-ditch effort he made after Congress declined to fulfill an earlier spending request. House Democrats haven’t filed their suit yet, but they intend to take to the courts and argue that this move was unconstitutional, Pelosi said.

Trump has, after all, ignored the will of Congress — the body that’s authorized to approve federal spending by the Constitution — not once, but twice. After Congress rejected Trump’s initial demands for border wall money, it also passed a resolution aimed at blocking his national emergency — a clear sign that the majority of the body disagreed with his efforts. (Trump issued the first veto of his term to reject that resolution.)

“The President’s action clearly violates the Appropriations Clause by stealing from appropriated funds, an action that was not authorized by constitutional or statutory authority,” Pelosi said in a statement on Thursday. “Congress, as Article I — the first branch, co-equal to the other branches — must reassert its exclusive responsibilities reserved by the text of the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances.”

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