(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration's transfer last year of $2.5 billion of Defense Department funds intended for Army personnel to help pay for a wall along the Mexican border violated the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court said.
The 2-1 decision Friday by the San Francisco-based court may be largely symbolic because the U.S. Supreme Court said in July that the organizations that sued, the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, probably will lose their argument that they have legal right to challenge the Defense Department's compliance with the law. The Supreme Court allowed the government's use of the funds during the litigation.
But later Friday, the same panel of the court returned a similarly divided opinion upholding a trial judge's decision in favor of California and New Mexico's challenge to the use of Defense Department funds for the border wall. It said the states could sue to protect their environment and wildlife interests.
The government claimed the environmental groups weren't proper plaintiffs to bring a lawsuit targeting border security projects in “drug-smuggling corridors that already contain dilapidated vehicle and pedestrian barriers.” The administration said the Sierra Club's recreational and aesthetic interests are completely unconnected with the statute that governs the Defense Department's internal reallocation of appropriated funds.
Friday's majority rulings were written by Circuit Judge Sidney Thomas and joined by Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, both of whom were appointed by former President Bill Clinton. The dissenting opinion was by Circuit Judge Daniel Collins, who was appointed by President Donald Trump.
“Today, the court reminded the President -- once again -- that no one is above the law,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “We applaud the court for taking action to immediately halt Trump's unlawful money grab.”
The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg, majority owner of Bloomberg LP.
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