AtlasShrieked
Member
- Jun 12, 2008
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U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear border fence challenge
The Supreme Court gave the Bush administration a victory Monday when it declined to step into the controversy over the waiver of environmental laws to speed construction of a 670-mile border security fence.
The Associated Press
Opponents of the fence, this stretch in Nogales, Ariz., say there are legal and legislative challenges still in play.
But with a number of legal and legislative challenges still in play, it is not the end to efforts by border residents to halt construction of the fence, fence opponents said.
The court refused without comment the challenge by the Sierra Club and Friends of Wildlife, which argued that the waiver authority given Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to speed fence construction by bypassing environmental laws is unconstitutional.
Mr. Chertoff has waived more than 30 laws via the authority granted him by the Real ID Act of 2005 to meet the Bush administration's goal to finish the half-completed fence by year's end.
"I am extremely disappointed in the court's decision," said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. "The waiver will only prolong [Homeland Security] from addressing the real issue, their lack of a comprehensive border security plan."