Thread: Federal judge tosses suit seeking to stop part of Az border

Published: 12.20.2007
Federal judge tosses suit seeking to stop part of Az border fence
The Associated Press

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acted legally when he waived environmental rules and cleared the way for a new border fence in a sensitive Arizona-Mexico border area, a federal judge has ruled.
The judge threw out the latest version of a suit that sought to block the construction of seven miles of fencing in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz.
The waiver Chertoff issued in October was legal because Congress specifically gave him the power to bypass environmental rules to secure the borders, U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle wrote in a ruling released Tuesday.
Huvelle had ordered construction temporarily halted in early October after Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club argued that Homeland Security hadn't done needed environmental studies.
Chertoff then invoked his power to bypass those rules and restarted construction. The new suit that followed alleged that his actions violated the separation of powers clause of the constitution.
Huvelle, a Washington, D.C.-based judge, rejected the argument and dismissed the suit. She wrote that Congress was within its rights to delegate to Chertoff the power to make individual decisions on border fencing environmental issues.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/71941.php

HOO-RAH!

Don't think this is much now, now that fence funding has been eliminated.