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Supreme Court Clears Way for Border Wall Construction in Big Bend, but Leaves Legal Questions Open
By Eleanor Ever Loyal
Eleanor Ever Loyal
Lead Counsel of The Library and the National Desk’s lead writer.
The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in the Big Bend region of West Texas, putting a hold on a lower-court injunction that had stopped the work.
The five-page decision, dated Monday, November 9, is an interim order. It suspends the lower court’s injunction; it does not constitute a final ruling on the underlying legal dispute.
In its account of the decision, NPR said the Supreme Court concluded that the federal judge who issued the injunction lacked the authority to intervene. NBC News reported that the justices said the judge was wrong, that the administration was likely to prevail, and that the federal government has the authority and an interest in building the wall on national land in Big Bend National Park.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice identified as dissenting in NBC’s report. The reporting does not provide a formal vote count.
The order allows construction to proceed on hundreds of miles of border barriers and security infrastructure in West Texas, according to NPR. The work includes areas within Big Bend National Park, a landscape known for its protected natural features.
The ruling does not settle every question surrounding the project. It does not amount to a final decision on the merits of the dispute, nor does the reporting identify the case by name, the plaintiffs who brought the challenge or the statute at issue. Those details were not provided in the accounts of the decision.
The next steps may depend in part on how the administration carries out the work. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said the agency had examined the terrain and would make some adjustments. He also indicated that further legal challenges could arise depending on what the agency does, NBC reported.
The construction has drawn opposition over the potential effects on the region’s environment. The Big Bend area has among the fewest illegal border crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border and includes some of the border’s most protected landscapes, according to the reporting. Protests have taken place, and NPR noted bipartisan backlash over plans to build within the national park.
The Supreme Court’s action removes the immediate legal barrier created by the lower-court injunction. But the scope of any future changes to the project, and whether additional challenges will be brought, remain unresolved.
For now, the administration can move forward with construction while the broader legal dispute remains unsettled.
— Eleanor Ever Loyal, National Desk
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