BORDER/HOUSE OF REPS/LAWSUIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives will join a growing list of organizations mounting legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration on the border, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday [4-4-19]. The lawsuit was approved with a 3-2 vote along party lines by the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group. The group is comprised of the top three House Democrats and the top two House Republicans…The lawsuit, which has not been filed yet, will argue that Trump’s decision to transfer funds from appropriated accounts to a southern border wall violates the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution. The clause — found in Article I, Section 8 — gives Congress power over the designation of federal spending. This is the chamber’s second attempt to halt the use of federal dollars on the wall following the declaration in February. The declaration came after a 35-day government shutdown over border security that ended with the allocation of $1.375 billion for a wall. The move allows Trump to redirect more than an additional $6 billion for the project in order to address what he called a ‘national security crisis’ at the southern border.”
–Katie Bernard, “House to file lawsuit challenging Trump’s national emergency at the border,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 4, 2019 6:12 pm