The Supreme Court says it will not stop the Bush Administration from waiving more than 30 environmental laws along the border to build hundreds of additional miles of border fencing. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has details.
The Supreme Court has refused to take up a case filed by a coalition of environmental groups and lawmakers.
The case alleged that Congress violated the constitution when it granted the Secretary of Homeland Security the power to waive any laws along the border. It said the waiver blurred the separation of powers and granted the secretary executive powers.
Kim Delfino is with Defenders of Wildlife , one of the plaintiffs in the case. She says it was the last gasp for an environmentally sensitive area in Arizona where the government plans to build border fencing. She says it also has implications for California.
Delfino: I think that the ruling means that the Department of Homeland Security is going to move forward in building about 80 miles of fence through the most sensitive desert areas.
Fence plans show it will run through the Otay and Jacumba Wilderness areas and from El Centro to Yuma, Arizona.
Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
