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Border fence challenge rebuffed by Supreme Court

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Environmentalists campaigning to stop the U.S. government’s border fence project on the Mexico line were dealt a blow yesterday when the Supreme Court turned away their legal challenge.

The court’s action clears the way for U.S. officials to press ahead with the project with little worry that judges will be able to stop it, writes the L.A. Times’ David G. Savage.

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Three years ago, Congress gave Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff an unusual power to ‘waive all legal requirements’ that could stand in the way of building the fence. These requirements included the nation’s environmental protection laws. The same congressional action took away the authority of judges to review Chertoff’s decisions.

The high court’s refusal is not a ruling, and it doesn’t mean the justices won’t reconsider the issue. But for now, Chertoff and his department have the go-ahead to proceed with the fence. Nearly half the barrier has been built.

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Environmentalists are not the only activists campaigning to stop the border fence project. American citizens, whose properties and homes are being sliced up by the project, are also up in arms.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

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