AG Weiser To Join California-Led Challenge To Trump’s Wall Declaration

Colorado's Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser will join a multi-state legal challenge to President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration.

Weiser’s office said Sunday that the California-led effort plans to stop Trump's intention to divert money to build a southern border wall. The lawsuit will likely challenge the declaration’s constitutionality.

I’ve just learned Colorado Attorney General @pweiser will join a multi-state lawsuit (led by California) to challenge @realDonaldTrump’s emergency declaration. According to Weiser’s spokesman, other states include CT, DE, HI, ME, MN, NJ, NM, OR, and VA. #copolitics

— Ryan Warner (@cprwarner) February 18, 2019

“We have fewer people going over the border today than anytime in quite some time,” Weiser told Colorado Matters. “And so to say that constitutes an emergency begs the question, ‘Something is not as bad as it was before when it was an emergency, and it's one now.’ That's a scary precedent.”

Weiser said the diversion of funds from federal military budgets could impact the state. The presence of those impacts will be key to Colorado — and other states — having standing to sue Trump in federal court.

“We as citizens need to be heard,” Weiser said. “I’m going to make sure that my voice on this is heard, that we all talk about the rule of law and are committed to protecting our nation as one that operates under the rule of law.”

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said this weekend that he is “confident there are at least 8 billion ways that we can prove harm” in the lawsuit, referring to the amount of federal money that will likely get redirected toward the wall.

Trump made the emergency declaration Friday, freeing billions of dollars up from military budgets to build the wall he made central to his presidential campaign in 2016.

The lawsuit has not been filed, but Becerra said Sunday that it was “imminent."