BORDER/CALIFORNIA/LAWSUIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “A coalition of 16 states filed suit on Monday [2-18-19] to block President Donald Trump’s effort to fund his border wall by declaring a national emergency, calling it a ‘flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of powers principles.’ The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, is the third in a string of legal challenges already launched against Trump’s use of emergency powers since he announced the move during a meandering White House news conference on Friday. Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group, filed a suit late Friday in the District of Columbia on behalf of three Texas landowners who would be impacted by the construction of a wall along the border. And Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics has filed a motion against the Department of Justice demanding that the agency provide documents pertaining to the legal justification of the president’s emergency declaration. The states behind Monday’s lawsuit argued that Trump engaged in an ‘unlawful scheme’ when he ‘used the pretext of a manufactured ‘crisis’ of unlawful immigration to declare a national emergency and redirect federal dollars appropriated for drug interdiction, military construction, and law enforcement initiatives toward building a wall on the United States-Mexico border,’ according to a copy of the complaint obtained by POLITICO.”
–Jeremy B. White and Gabby Orr, “California leads 16 states in lawsuit against Trump emergency declaration,” Politico, February 18, 2019 10:24 pm