Biden-Harris Admin Delays Trial Against Texas Border Buoys Until After Election

The Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice filed an unopposed motion to postpone a trial on its lawsuit against Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the placement of floating border barriers in the Rio Grande. The motion for a 60-day delay will likely move the trial date past the November 5 presidential election.

The motion for the delay in starting a trial followed a July 30 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which said Texas could keep its floating border barriers pending the outcome of a trial on the merits of the case. Following the en banc appeal, the court’s majority opinion overturned a lower court’s preliminary injunction and wrote, “We hold that the district court clearly erred in finding that the United States will likely prove that the barrier is in a navigable stretch of the Rio Grande. We cannot square the district court’s findings and conclusions with over a century’s worth of precedent.”

In the en banc decision made by 17 judges, the majority (ten judges) said Texas was likely to prevail in the lawsuit. The remaining seven judges said the federal government was likely to prevail, the Washington Examiner reported.

The DOJ asked for the delay in order to “consider appropriate next steps in the district court proceedings in light of the opinion (including necessary consultation with client agencies), and thereafter advise Defendants and the Court on how the United States proposes to proceed,” U.S. attorneys wrote in their motion.

Breitbart Texas reported that just over one year ago, contractors began placing the floating border buoys in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas.

Texas Department of Public Safety

Later that month, the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Lone Star State demanding the removal of the barriers.

The full court’s ruling also overturned an earlier ruling by the three-judge panel, which initially upheld the lower court’s ruling.

The case now goes back to the lower court in the Western District of Texas, where a trial on the matter is planned for August 6 in Austin, Texas.

The federal government asked for the trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas before Judge David Ezra to start by Oct. 7, “or the next available date and time thereafter.”

The case is USA v. Greg Abbott, No. 23-50632, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit en banc.