President Trump's wall may not be getting any higher, but the number of lawsuits filed against him by California is California issuing the Trump administration to stop construction of the wall along the state's border with Mexico. California State Attorney General Javier Bessara said that construction of the border wall violates the separation of powers doctrine of the Constitution and thirty seven laws, including the Clean Water Act, the National
Environmental Policy Act, and the Coastal Zone Management Act. The border between the US and Mexico spans some two thousand miles. The list of laws violated by the President's administration in order to build his campaign wall is almost as law.
This is the latest of more than two dozen lawsuits and legal briefs filed against the Trump administration by bas Sarah As California political resistance to the Trump agenda escalates, joining us to discuss the law SCOOTS lawsuit is Cardike Marotra Bloomberg News Legal reporter card k Homeland Security has broad powers over the border. So what are the strongest arguments in this lawsuit? So there are three fundamental arguments
being brought by the California Attorney general. One is based on states rights on that to this proposal is a violation of sentiment rights for the state to do what it wishes to uh in in the state. That's one.
The second is that the law that allows the Department of Homeland Security to circumvent local and federal laws to erect a wall and has some caveats, and it among them is that after the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act was passed in ninety six, there was a brief window in which the federal government was supposed to determine which regions would be subject to additional physical barriers.
This area apparently was not one of those regions uh and and the deadline for doing so for naming that area was the end of two thousand eight. So the BASERA Attorney General's office claims that you know your your wind of opportunity has gone, and that's sort of the primary argument. The third is that there's been no nipa um review environmental review of this project. The environmental impact hasn't been determined, so that needs to occur before any
construction can move forward. These are the three basic claims. Cardike. The president generally has very broad power over the border. How does that general principle fit in with those specific allegations that you just laid out. The State of California is going to argue that while the president has broad powers, while the Department of Homeland Security has broad powers, they can't violate the constitution right. They can't circumvent the tenth Amendment.
So you can't heat upon the state's rights to enforce your own um And so they're going to hope that they can find a favorable judge to to buy into that argument. Illegal challenges to border barriers have not been successful over the years, have they No, You've seen, uh these challenges pop up a number of times in the past, and yet you have over seven hundred miles of border wall uh at the US Mexico borders. So I don't
think at the law is on California. An attorney general, how you have saricide Carter K. You mentioned the hope by California for a favorable judge. Is there a prospect this case could end up before Judge Curiel, who, of course was the focus of Donald Trump's um uh ire during the campaign because of the student in halving Trump University. That's not out of the question. He's in the southern district of California. I don't believe it's been assigned to
judge yet, um so us. Yeah, it's it's absolutely possible. Uh but uh and that will certainly create a dynamic worth watching where you'll see the President again have the opportunity to attack the judiciary if fIF things don't go his way. Certainly he we all know how passionate he is about the border wall, So if another judge gets
in his way, you know, all bets are off. On Twitter, card Cake, can you describe the number of lawsuits that Bassara has been filing and California's basic attempt to confront the Trump administration and its agenda. The California Resistance, as as they dubbed it, sort of got off to a slow start. Aside from the travel Band, which California didn't actually take a leading role in, it had been rather quiet.
It wasn't until the DOCCA issue re emerged a couple of weeks ago, when Attorney General Sessions announced its phasing out over the next six months, that California and howvir Besa really got into gear. He's campaigning for two thousand and eighteen election. He was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in December, so he's campaigning now and now it seems to the issues that are are central to California politics are becoming national issues. Um that's mostly immigration and border securities.
So data and the wall are are right in his wheelhouse. So we're seeing the Bassarra office becoming more proactive and California as a whole, legislatively is becoming more proactive. You have a couple of bills in Sacramento, one that would make California sanctuary state, and the other that would require any presidential candidates who wish to get on California ballot to declare their tax records for last five years. Uh,
we'll have to stop their car card. But we're gonna have plenty to talk about about California, especially if it decides to secede from the Union, as the case maybe