Supreme Court lets border wall construction resume in Texas's Big Bend, including the national park

The unsigned order puts on hold an injunction that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso issued Oct. 2, which barred construction and ground-disturbing work in the Big Bend sector until the government complied with environmental and other laws. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the request. The majority said the government was exceedingly likely to win its argument that Cardone had no power to hear the challengers' claim, and noted that the stoppage was costing nearly half a million dollars a day, SCOTUSblog reported. The court declined to reverse her ruling outright. The order holds until the justices decide whether to take the case or the El Paso court resolves it, according to The Texas Tribune.

The work at stake is large. The Big Bend sector covers 517 miles of border, and the administration has awarded $7.5 billion in contracts there for roads, barriers and technology, the Tribune reported. Customs and Border Protection says the 30-foot steel wall will stay outside the national park. Inside the park, its plan calls for more than 200 miles of patrol roads and about 17 miles of vehicle barrier, CBS News reported. Work on a 47-mile wall stretch in Hudspeth County, part of the Big Bend region, started in September and stopped under the judge's order.

CBP did not immediately say how fast crews would return, the Associated Press reported. The agency has told the court it will present a final plan for the park but has not done so yet. The case before the court was filed by a local river guide together with two groups, Friends of the Ruidosa Church and the Center for Biological Diversity. It is one of six lawsuits against the project, and the agency still faces landowners who have resisted giving access for surveys and construction.