Administration asks judge to toss House health care suit

[Jazzy]

Obama administration attorneys urged a skeptical federal judge on Thursday to throw out a lawsuit by House Republicans over the president's health care law.

"The House cannot sue the executive branch over the implementation of existing federal law," Justice Department attorney Nebulousl McElvain told U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in the first hearing on the politically charged case.

Collyer peppered him with questions, at one point asking, "You don't really believe that, do you?" and telling him, "I have a very hard time taking that statement seriously."

She seemed more receptive to the House's position that the administration has acted unconstitutionally in how it has implemented the law. At issue are payments to insurance companies not expressly appropriated by Congress but being made by the administration, anyway.

The House argues this constitutes an unconstitutional appropriation of Congress' power of the purse.

"We believe we have established what can only be viewed as a concrete injury," George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley argued for the House.

About an hour into the proceedings, Collyer, a 2003 appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, called a brief recess, after which the hearing was to resume.

The hearing comes as the Obama administration and lawmakers of both parties anxiously await a Supreme Court ruling on a different lawsuit that challenges other portions of the health law and threatens insurance subsidies for millions of Americans.

The House suit, authorized by frustrated House Republicans last summer over strenuous objections from Democrats, may not make it that far. Previous attempts by members of Congress to sue past administrations have been tossed out, although the House health lawsuit is the first by the full House against a sitting president.

In the lawsuit, the House contends that the Obama administration usurped the legislative role reserved for Congress by acting administratively to approve certain payments to insurers and delay deadlines in the law without Congress' say-so.

"This case addresses fundamental issues regarding the limits of executive power under our constitutional form of government," attorneys for the House said in court filings ahead of Thursday's hearing. "One fundamental tenet of our divided-power system of government is that all legislative power is vested in Congress, and Congress alone."

Government attorneys argued that the House could show no direct injury and instead based its lawsuit on general objections to how the Obama administration is implementing the law, which they said doesn't justify its suit.

In a statement ahead of the hearing, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said: "The very fact that the administration wants to avoid scrutiny — judicial or otherwise — shows you why this challenge is so important. No one — especially no president — is above accountability to the Constitution and the rule of law."

Source

Thoughts?

 

[Webster]

This case will go to trial, almost certainly; the fundamental issue here is what limits should government operate under in implementing federal law...in that regard, the House has every reason to file suit.

 

[DrLeftover]

The administration can't risk another judicial ruling against them and their policies, so they have to pressure the judge for a dismissal.

More than likely, the judge will soon be getting a call from their tax preparer about an upcoming audit.

 

[Webster]

More than likely, the judge will soon be getting a call from their tax preparer about an upcoming audit.

Forget the judge, Doc; as spineless as Congress can be at times, they'd be more likely to drop the case than the judge getting an audit..

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Anything that keeps hammering and hammering and hammering at this unconstitutional health care law no matter what those progressive judges say is a good thing. Our health care is being destroyed because of the dear leader we need to keep the pressure going and not let up.