Posted on 07/11/2014 6:29:05 PM PDT by Kaslin
The rule of the law and the separation of powers are indispensable to our system of government. And yet, according to House Republicans, the president has violated his oath of office one too many times by encroaching on the rights of the legislative branch and re-writing laws as he sees fit. Hence why Republican House Speaker John Boehner is filing a lawsuit against him.
Obviously, there are many examples of President Obama circumventing Congress to advance his legislative agenda, but the Speaker of the House ultimately decided to sue him for a very specific reason: He unilaterally delayed implementing a provision under the Affordable Care Act that was wholly outside his purview.
“Today we’re releasing a draft resolution that will authorize the House to file suit over the way President Obama unilaterally changed the employer mandate,” Boehner’s office said in a statement yesterday. “In 2013, the president changed the health care law without a vote of Congress, effectively creating his own law by literally waiving the employer mandate and the penalties for failing to comply with it. That’s not the way our system of government was designed to work. No president should have the power to make laws on his or her own."
Boehner continued:
“As I’ve said, this isn't about Republicans versus Democrats; it’s about the Legislative Branch versus the Executive Branch, and above all protecting the Constitution," he wrote. "The Constitution states that the president must faithfully execute the laws, and spells out that only the Legislative Branch has the power to legislate. The current president believes he has the power to make his own laws – at times even boasting about it. He has said that if Congress won’t make the laws he wants, he’ll go ahead and make them himself, and in the case of the employer mandate in his health care law, that’s exactly what he did. If this president can get away with making his own laws, future presidents will have the ability to as well. The House has an obligation to stand up for the Legislative Branch, and the Constitution, and that is exactly what we will do.”
The White House has dismissed the lawsuit as a “political stunt,” and Nancy Pelosi herself has described it as a “legal boondoggle doomed to fail.” Nonetheless, according to legal scholar Jonathan Turley, there’s a real possibility that this lawsuit is more than just political theatre (via The Daily Beast):
While Obama and his cheerleaders in the media sneer at the notion of executive overreach, noted constitutional scholar and George Washington Law School Professor Jonathan Turley believes Boehner’s suit could prevail. “I think there is a case against the president for exceeding his authority…I happen to agree with the president on many of his priorities and policies, but as I testified in Congress, I think that he has crossed the constitutional line,” Turley told MSNBC the day Boehner announced his suit.
“When the president went to Congress and said he would go it alone, it obviously raises a concern,” Turley added. “There’s no license for going it alone in our system, and what he’s done is very problematic. He has shifted $454 million of the ACA from appropriated purpose to another purpose. He’s told agencies not to enforce some laws, like immigration laws. He has effectively rewritten laws through the active interpretation that I find very problematic. While I happen to agree with him, I voted for him, I think this is a problem."
As do House Republicans. In any case, the House Rules Committee will deliberate and discuss a bill next Wednesday on whether or not to sue President Obama, according to the New York Times. Stay tuned.
Another lawsuit that will be hung up in the courts for years.
Faced with the greatest crisis of his Speakership, Mr. Boehner is voting “present”.
Or is this another example of RINO Kabuki Theatre?
Just impeach the Bastard.
Boehner’s an idiot. I can’t wait until after the election and they pick someone else.
Don't we all?
How else to get a bad law repealed with widespread public support?
Fun stuff!: No judge or justice can support Obama.
The GOPe will then vote to use the retroactive funds from the mandate to bring in more immigrants...
NO standing under the law in my opinion.
Find him a windmill and a lance and tape it on your phone for what it’s worth. Oh and don’t forget the horse and its as....
Never mind.
With all that’s going on on the border and elsewhere and this is what he is going to sue over —
He is beyond hopeless
?????
Uh oh. For once I agree with the stupidest member of Congress. Excuse me, I need to go have myself committed. I'll check in later.
It’s the same as the impoundment suit congress won against Nixon. Open and shut.
Should have been filed immediately. Guess the GOPe could twist more businesses arms for donations by waiting though.
More likely the suit will be tossed out within a month
Considering that most of the Judges that could make that decision will, most probably, be liberal ... you might be right.
In other news, today I bought a coffee. The Earth turned, the tide came in, then left.
I don’t recall a case like this from either party. Apparently it is something new. And, as with most new political things, this will take forever to be adjudicated. Possibly beyond the end of nobama’s second term. Which really makes it kind of worthless. (I know Boehner said this would apply to future presidents as well.)
Also, what relief are they seeking? I seem to have missed that.
House of Cowards
I must say that I love the irony of this.
Newsmax 5/011/2014 Mark Levin Slams Boehner
Conservative commentator Mark Levin has slammed House Speaker John Boehner's plan to sue President Barack Obama for his alleged abuse of power, calling it a "very risky and foolish move."
Levin, who calls himself a constitutional lawyer, warned that Obama would likely win the court case, which would then embolden the president to go around Congress with more executive orders.
"I really do cringe at this idea that the elected branch of government turns to the unelected branch of government, and in essence empowers the other branch to make these decisions," he said on his Internet radio show. "That is not the way it is supposed to be. It troubles and worries me."
Levin said the federal courts often reject cases where the plaintiffs don't have any "standing," which he says is the case with Boehner's suit because Congress is a branch of government and not the House of Representatives alone.
"Even in a case where the full Congress, House and Senate, have brought a case, the courts have asked. Why are we involved in this? It's for you to duke it out, politically and electorally, with the executive branch.
"My problem is that it's an outlier argument — not the part whether the president is lawless; he is lawless. Let's say this case is quickly dismissed. Who will benefit from that? The House will be damaged by that in terms of the politics. But Obama cay say, 'Look at this, the courts agree with me.'
"It will embolden him and future presidents to violate the Constitution and to expand their illegitimate imperial power. This is playing with fire. I'm not kidding. ...
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