Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel, once disparaged by President Donald Trump over his ethnicity, will preside over a critical border wall case that could stunt the president's plans to build the wall, McClatchy reported.
Curiel will hear lawsuits brought against the Department of Homeland Security, accusing the federal government of overreach in waivers it received in 1996 and 2005 to bypass federal and state laws for its border security projects, McClatchy reports.
Three separate lawsuits are being combined into one case that begins Friday in U.S. District Court.
"This is a very significant case," Andrew Gordon, a lawyer and former DHS official told McClatchy, saying that Curiel's decision in favor of the plaintiffs could stunt Trump's plans to fortify open patches along the southern border.
Curiel was the judge presiding over the Trump University lawsuits, drawing the ire of the then-presidential candidate who implied that Curiel, son of Mexican immigrants, was biased against Trump because of his campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border.
Trump wanted the class-action lawsuits dismissed; Curiel ruled otherwise. Trump eventually settled for $25 million.
"Look, he's proud of his heritage, OK? I'm building a wall," Trump told CNN in June 2016. "He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico."
Curiel is American, born in Indiana.
The border wall lawsuits are challenging the scope of the waivers granted to DHS by Congress, and California is claiming its state rights are being violated San Diego County where the Trump administration intends to replace 14 miles of fencing, McClatchy reports.
"It is an interesting argument, and they have a judge who may be sympathetic to that argument," Gordon told McClatchy.
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