Haywood Gilliam, the U.S. District Court judge who issued a preliminary injunction on Friday, partially obstructing the building of the border wall should have recused himself from the case and should be dealt with harshly.
He was appointed by Barack Obama to whom he contributed $20,000. If that isn’t a conflict of interest, then I don’t know what that phrase means. He also contributed another $10,000 to other Democratic groups. His contributions began after he completed a stint as a US attorney and ended after he was appointed to be a judge by Barack Obama.
I guess that is what is known as paying it forward.
The Epoch Times, which first reported Gilliam’s political contribution history, noted the donations began in 2007, a year after Gilliam’s stint as assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of California, and ended after he began his U.S. district judgeship.
During his confirmation, Gilliam said he “would base my decisions solely on the facts of each case and the applicable precedent, without regard to any political ideology or motivation,” and that his personal views “would not interfere in any way with my ability to neutrally apply the law,” The Washington Examiner reported.
Judge Gilliam’s Friday preliminary injunction reportedly bars the Pentagon from transferring $1 billion from counter-drug funding to expand or enhance border barriers. It also “appears to jeopardize another $1.5 billion of the $8.1 billion the administration planned to use for border construction,” according to Politico.
[T]he Court hereby GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART WITHOUT PREJUDICE Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. The terms of the injunction are as follows: Defendants Patrick M. Shanahan, in his official capacity as Acting Secretary of Defense, Kevin K. McAleenan, in his official capacity as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Steven T. Mnuchin, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, and all persons acting under their direction, are enjoined from taking any action to construct a border barrier in the areas Defendants have identified as Yuma Sector Project 1 and El Paso Sector Project 1 using funds reprogrammed by DoD under Section 8005 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019.