Tag: United States district court

A coalition of 16 US states led by California has launched legal action against Donald Trump’s administration over his decision to declare a national emergency in order to fund a wall along the Mexico border. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the US district court for the northern district of California after Trump invoked emergency powers on Friday when Congress declined his request for $5.7bn to help create his signature policy promise. His move aims to let him spend money appropriated by Congress for other purposes. “Today, on Presidents Day, we take President Trump to court to block his misuse of presidential power,” California attorney general Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “We’re suing President Trump to stop him from unilaterally robbing taxpayer funds lawfully set aside by Congress for the people of our states. For most of us, the Office of the Presidency is not a place for theatre,” added Becerra, a Democrat. In a budget deal passed by Congress to avert a second government shutdown, nearly $1.4bn was allocated to border fencing. Earlier, Trump had said he knew that he did not need to declare an emergency to build the wall, a comment that could now undercut the government’s legal argument. “Presidents don’t go in and claim declarations of emergency for the purposes of raiding accounts because they weren’t able to get Congress to fund items,” Becerra said on MSNBC. Play Video 1:43

EAST CHICAGO — A former city councilman removed from office for public corruption still has the right to sue over claims he now is a victim of political retaliation. U.S. District Court Judge James T. Moody ruled last weekend Randall Artis can take City Clerk Adrian Santos to trial as early as next year for firing Artis, who refused to support the 2016 election of Santos' political friends. Artis, who served as East Chicago's 3rd District City Councilman from 1992 to 2005, was among a number of East Chicago officials and politically-connected vendors indicted and convicted in the so-called sidewalks case. That scandal featured city politicians misappropriating public funds to repave voters' sidewalks, private driveways and, in one case, a homeowner's backyard free of charge to curry voters' favor during the 1999 municipal election. Artis pleaded guilty in 2005 to a federal theft count alleging he misspent $1.3 million in "sidewalks" money. Artis returned to city employment in August 2015 when then-City Clerk Mary Morris Leonard hired him, saying she believed Artis deserved a second chance. She left office Jan. 1, 2016, when Santos took over. Santos fired Artis the following month. Santos claims he fired Artis because of Artis' prior felony conviction since the city's insurer wouldn't cover any losses caused by a city employee convicted of theft or another crime of dishonesty. The court ruled a jury must decide at trial whether the timing of Artis' firing and Santos' failure to fire another employee with a prior felony was evidence Santos was trying to curtail Artis' freedom of political expression.