Border Wall Battle Heads to Court; Awaiting Trump Decision on Democratic Memo
KEILAR: The battle over perhaps President Trump's biggest campaign promise, the border wall, goes to court today where it could run into a legal wall. The state of California and several other groups are challenging the right of the Department of Homeland Security to bypass environmental laws to build it. And adding to the intrigue here, the judge that is hearing the case endured Trump's public wrath before the election in a separate case. CNN's Sara Sidner is live in San Diego with more. Sara, bring us up to date on this.</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So we all know that there was widespread condemnation when Donald Trump attacked this particular federal judge. Now, as luck would have it, he was assigned a case that could have a major impact on building the border wall, about 14 miles of it, here in San Diego.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): This border wall battle begins where the ocean meets the land in San Diego and goes 14 miles inland right through a national wildlife refuge.</s>BRIAN SEGEE, SENIOR ATTORNEY, CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: That area is an environmental hot spot. It has habitats for endangered species along its length. It has protected federal lands, national parks, national monuments, national forests.</s>SIDNER: The state of California and environmentalists sued the Department of Homeland Security saying it is using waivers to thwart environmental laws to build a border wall where a fence already exists. (on camera): How many laws are being circumvented with these waivers?</s>SEGEE: More than 30. So no environmental impact study, no public outreach, no consultation with experts, no specific look at endangered species, they waived more than 30 other laws that aren't at issue in our lawsuit like Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act.</s>SIDNER (voice-over): In 1996, Congress authorized waivers to speed up the process of building border barriers by bypassing certain federal and state laws. DHS is arguing it has the authority to continue to do so. That is how this fence ended up being built in the first place. The agency would not comment on the current case. Now, the case that could impede Trump's biggest campaign promise has been assigned to Judge Gonzalo Curiel.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. A hater. He's a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel.</s>SIDNER: Then-Candidate Donald Trump launched attack after attack against the federal judge as he presided over the Trump University fraud case. CNN's Jake Tapper questioned Mr. Trump about it.</s>TRUMP: I've been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall. OK? I'm building a wall. I'm going to do very well with the Hispanics, the Mexicans --</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: So no Mexican judge could ever be involved in a case that involves you?</s>TRUMP: Well, he's a member of a society where, you know, very pro Mexico, and that's fine. It is all fine. But --</s>TAPPER: You're calling into question his character.</s>TRUMP: I think he needs to recuse himself because he also said--</s>TAPPER: Does he know the lawyer on the other side? Does he know the lawyer? And a lot of people say --</s>TRUMP: I'm talking about --</s>TRUMP: That's another problem.</s>TAPPER: You're invoking his race when talking about whether or not he can do his job.</s>TRUMP: Jake, I'm building a wall. OK? I'm building a wall. I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico. Mexico is fine. There is nothing --</s>TAPPER: He's an American.</s>TRUMP: He's of Mexican heritage. And he's very proud of it.</s>SIDNER: At the time, Trump's comments were condemned by many.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like a textbook definition of a racist comment.</s>SIDNER: We asked the White House for comment on whether President Trump has changed his stance on Judge Curiel as he hears arguments in another case that could seriously slow down the building of a border wall.</s>SIDNER: Now, we have not heard anything back from the White House as to whether Donald Trump still feels the same way about Judge Curiel. What we do know is that the federal judge has never uttered publicly a negative word about Donald Trump. This case will begin in a few hours and we will have to see what happens in the interim. But for now, the fight will be going on here at federal court -- Brianna?</s>KEILAR: Sara Sidner, thank you so much for that report. Now, we are standing by to see if President Trump is going to authorize the release of the Democratic memo, the rebuttal to the Republican memo that alleged surveillance abuses at the FBI. Will this new one change the story?