ASHINGTON (AP) — Crews could start building a private border wall in South Texas within the coming days following a federal judge's ruling Thursday that lifted a restraining order against the project.

U.S. District Judge Randy Crane's order was the second federal ruling in two days in favor of border barriers. On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower court's stay that had prevented President Donald Trump's administration from diverting $3.6 billion from military construction projects to fund 175 miles (280 kilometers) of border wall.

While the White House on Thursday celebrated the appeals court's ruling, saying it rightfully lifted an “illegitimate nationwide injunction,” Crane's ruling actually went against the U.S. government's position.

Fisher Industries, a North Dakota-based construction firm, wants to install 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) of steel posts about 35 feet (10 meters) from the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande, the river that forms the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. The company's president, Tommy Fisher, wants to spend $40 million on the private border wall — originally promoted by a pro-Trump online fundraising group — to prove that his company can build barriers more effectively.

The U.S. government sued to stop Fisher on the grounds that building so close to the Rio Grande risked changing the flow of the river and potentially pushing floodwaters into Mexico, in violation of treaty obligations. The U.S. attorney's office argued the project could shift the river and the international boundary, which violated the president's authority “to conduct the foreign relations of the United States.”