Congressmen join legal challenge against Chertoff’s right to waive environmental laws

By Steve Taylor and MarĂ*a González-Escareño
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.


McALLEN, April 8 - The chair of the Committee on Homeland Security is joining a legal effort that challenges a law that gives Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff the right to waive environmental laws in order to speed up construction of a border wall.


U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., announced Monday he would file an Amicus Curiae brief along with 13 other Democratic House members, including seven other House chairs. Among them are two Texas border congressmen, Solomon Ortiz, of Corpus Christi, the Dean of the Texas Congressional Delegation, and Silvestre Reyes, of El Paso, chair of the House Intelligence Committee.


The brief relates to a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 17 by Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club which challenges the constitutionality of the REAL ID Act, which grants the Homeland Security secretary sweeping authority to waive environmental laws and regulations in the name of homeland security.


“This waiver by the Secretary of Homeland Security is a direct challenge to Congress’s Constitutional role,â€