by Shane Ormond
A federal judge has ruled that Dem lawmakers don’t have the authority
to sue Trump for declaring a national emergency (and not so subtly told
them to stop crying to the courts about every little thing Trump does).
In the last few months, the Dems have been successfully leveraging the power of the courts to impede Trump, further investigations into his finances, and avoid ever having to speak to their Republican counterparts.
However, they hit their first major stumbling block yesterday, as a Trump appointed judge ruled they could not sue the president over a plan to divert $6.1 billion from the military to build his border wall.
The
Dems argued that the lawsuit should be allowed on the grounds that 1)
they had exhausted every other option. And 2) the emergency order
violated the Constitution Appropriations Clause, which grants Congress
authority over the allocation of federal funds.
Judge Trevor McFadden disagreed, writing that “while the Constitution bestows upon members of the House many powers, it does not grant them standing to (drag) the executive branch into court claiming a dilution of Congress’s legislative authority.”
He went on to say that a “lawsuit is not a last resort for the House,” pointing to “several political arrows in its quiver to counter perceived threats to its sphere of power.”
McFadden puts his finger on the key problem with modern American ultra-partisan politics here. There is no actual “politics” anymore. No discussion. No deals. No compromises. None of the wheeling and dealing essential to making a two-party system work.
Instead, we have a bunch of idiots smashing their heads off each other and trying to circumvent the process with loopholes and legislative back alleys.
And all that gets us is a bunch of bumped noggins and a lot of very angry, frustrated, and exhausted people.
Even
this decision doesn’t get actually get anyone anywhere. The funds for
the wall have already been blocked by an Obama-appointed judge in
California in a completely separate lawsuit.