The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to continue with its plans to construct hundreds of miles of border barrier and security infrastructure in west Texas, while a court hearing over the effort moves forward.
The federal government's plans have stirred bipartisan backlash for its inclusion of Big Bend National Park, a beloved stretch of public land known for its sweeping canyons and unspoiled desert landscape.
In a five-page decision issued Monday, the high court wrote that the federal judge who ruled on the order didn't have the authority to weigh in.
"The injunction thus impedes the Government from advancing its 'compelling interests' in border security and integrity," reads the unsigned decision. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter in the decision.
The court wrote that federal law allows the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to waive environmental protections and conservation laws, which they called a "clear preference for expeditious border construction over the very harms respondents assert."
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