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In a 2-1 ruling, the panel of appellate judges found that “the use of those funds violates the constitutional requirement that the Executive Branch not spend money absent an appropriation from Congress.”

The order applies to some of the military funds tapped by President Trump for a wall along the southern border.

In the ruling, Judge Richard Clifton, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, and Judge Michelle Friedland, an Obama appointee, wrote that they believed the administration was not likely to succeed in appealing the lower court order.

The administration had issued an emergency request to the 9th Circuit asking the judges to lift the lower court injunctions.

But the judges on Wednesday denied that request. They ruled that officials had wrongly reallocated funds under Section 8005 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2019, which allows for the reappropriation of funds for “unforeseen” military requirements.

“Because section 8005 did not authorize DoD to reprogram the funds-and Defendants do not and cannot argue that any other statutory or constitutional provision authorized the reprogramming-the use of those funds violates the constitutional requirement that the Executive Branch not spend money absent an appropriation from Congress,” the opinion reads.

The judges also stated that there is a “strong likelihood” that groups that are challenging the use of military funds for a border wall, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Sierra Club, will succeed in their efforts.

“As for the public interest, we conclude that it is best served by respecting the Constitution’s assignment of the power of the purse to Congress, and by deferring to Congress’s understanding of the public interest as reflected in its repeated denial of more funding for border barrier construction,” the judges wrote.

In a statement, the ACLU said it was time for Trump to “move on,” following the judges’ decision.

“Congress and now two courts have said no to border wall funds. For the sake of our democracy and border communities, it’s time the president come to terms with the fact that America rejected his xenophobic wall - and move on,” said Dror Ladin, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, who argued the case before the appeals court.

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