This morning I will be testifying as the lead witness before the House Rules Committee on the authorization of litigation by the House of Representatives to challenge the unilateral actions of President Obama. The authorization makes it clear that the House will focus on the ACA changes. The hearing will begin at 10 am in H-313 in The Capitol building. It will be aired live on C-Span 3.
I will be the lead witness followed by Elizabeth Price Foley, Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law, then Simon Lazarus, Senior Counsel, Constitutional Accountability Center, and Walter Dellinger III, Partner, O’Melveny & Meyers LLP.
I would like to thank my incredible GW team for their proofing of the testimony. I have been in federal court and then federal mediation so this testimony was a crash project and, despite my getting the draft out on the day of the deadline, the team did a marvelous job late into the night. So thanks again to Claire Duggan, Michael Jones, Ann Porter, Nathan Richardson, and Conrad Risher.
Here is the testimony: Testimony.Turley.HouseRulesCommittee
Wishful thinking never supercedes economic law.
Good luck, but doing anything with this majority in the House smacks of politics. They have no real concern for the Constitution, only power and more money for the corporations and wealthy.
randy:
The point is, Obama didn’t have inherently authority.
Your argument is completely backwards – it is Obama who campaigned hard for this law, Republicans never wanted it in the first place.
Now that it is collapsing under its own top-heavy instabilities, he is coming in with chewing gum and chicken wire to prop it up anyway he can.
When the USSC rules that some States’ residents do not have to pay, the whole thing will fold in on itself anyway.
It was an ill conceived, magical thinking based thing in the first place. That it won on purely partisan lines destined it to alway be in a tug of war.
It was wishful thinking believing it just be so, all they had to do was enact it into law, then we would know what was in there, and everything would just fall into place.
Mespo, it’s been the goal of the GOP to make this President powerless by scurrilous attacks and obstruction. I think one day in history lessons, our grandchildren will learn to what lengths the GOP went to bring his President down, it will be seen as shameful period in American history.
randyjet:
” Now the GOP is suing Obama for doing what they wanted. The American people are right, This is nothing but political games and is simply a case when the GOP and its acolytes say that he is damned if he does and damned if he does not.”
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You got it my friend. This House of Reps has no intention to do any governing. Their sole reason for being is to discredit this Presidency and his policies they despise. First, they demand a delay in mandates and then, when pushed by their own constituency, refuse to consider the matter forcing the President to act. It’s a game and now the gambit is to bring in principled people like Professor Turley to provide some cogent basis for the political gamesmanship this most certainly has become.
Boehner knows that this suit will likely never be settled before Obama leaves office and even if it does it will be moot by Jan. 1, 2015.. So to that extent it’s a political stunt.
While the issues of separation of powers are legitimate, focusing on that hides the reality of the political war going on between the President who wants to do something and the House that does not. The only causalities here are the American people and especially those who can defend themselves the least.
And those Americans are what I think the focus should be in this debate not some political science class about the extent of erosion of the separation of powers. It’s a lot of sound and fury in service to the wrong ends. Constitutional theory is fine and the current structure surely could use some tweaking but that discussion should take a back seat when we’re addressing the problem of people dying because they can’t afford healthcare.
I admire JT for his principles but I think it’s in service to the wrong people — people who would bring the government crashing down and sacrifice their fellow citizens just so they could claim a temporary and ultimately Pyrrhic victory over their opponent.
A pox on their House and their lawsuit.
Political games, Americans agree by 51%. I wonder what those fat PUMA ladies would do if their precious Hillary Clinton was being sued by Republicans whose only job was to obstruct her. I wonder why the love for Hillary, when she was for the public mandate when Obama was against it. What hypocrisy.
That is an excellent testimony document. Sadly, some will see this as an attack upon Obama, and not an attack upon his various usurpations.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
A good read, and good luck. It is a shame that this issue does not have the attention of the masses. More attention will be devoted to LeBron James’ return to Cleveland this week. The media will focus more on the political motivations behind Boehner’s suit than the genuine constitutional crisis at hand. And Congress will wring their hands, whine a little, and do nothing. Our Constitution is wasted on us. Maybe all we deserve is a corporate police state.
Bravo, Mr. Turley and best of luck.
http://www.vox.com/2014/7/11/5890633/boehner-is-suing-obama-so-he-doesn-t-have-to-impeach-him “Consider what happens if Speaker John Boehner wins his lawsuit against President Barack Obama: the court will order Obama to implement the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate without further delay. Which, given that Obama only delayed the mandate until 2015 and court cases can take a long time to wind their way through the legal system, might mean the court will order Obama to do something he has already done.
What’s even odder about the suit is that Boehner hates Obamacare’s employer mandate. And the business groups that back Boehner hate Obamacare’s employer mandate. So Boehner is lifting heaven and earth to get the court to demand Obama more rapidly enforce a policy Boehner hates, that Boehner’s allies hate, and that Obama says he’s going to start enforcing in a few months anyway.
It’s as if Pat Riley was suing LeBron James to force him to begin playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers sooner.”
This is funny is a sad way. First off the GOP folks were crying that some of the provisions were going to hurt businesses, so Obama obliges them and delays the implementation of them. Of course, the GOP would do anything rather than actually make beneficial changes in the law. So since Obama knows he could not get the House to agree to any changes, uses his inherent authority to postpone some provisions that need tweaking. Now the GOP is suing Obama for doing what they wanted. The American people are right, This is nothing but political games and is simply a case when the GOP and its acolytes say that he is damned if he does and damned if he does not. GET REAL!
SWM:
Smart cookies, most of those Americans.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/john-boehner-lawsuit_n_5586395.html “WASHINGTON –” A majority of Americans think House Speaker John Boehner’s lawsuit against President Barack Obama is a pointless waste of resources, according to a new poll.
Boehner (R-Ohio) is pursuing a lawsuit against Obama, saying the president used executive power to delay provisions in the Affordable Care Act that should have required congressional approval. While the speaker’s proposed lawsuit has the backing of some Republicans in Congress, 51 percent of American voters view it as a “political stunt,” according to Public Policy Polling. Only 41 percent of voters consider the lawsuit to be legitimate.’
“It is akin to a group of the best doctors in the world standing around and screaming at an anemic patient to “heal yourself.””
Ha. Very nice analogy. Good luck on capital hill today.
Good luck professor. I just hope we don’t win the battle only to lose the war.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/house-republicans-obamacare-lawsuit-108957.html?hp=l1 “The decision to focus on Obamacare was surprising to some who expected a more sweeping legal action. But Republicans leading the effort say the health care overhaul is the best case they can bring to a judge.
“We’re not trying to take every issue that we disagree with the president on,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, who will lead the Wednesday hearing. “We’re going to pick that one that we believe has a lot of merit and widely recognized as an important issue.”
Proving that Obama misused his executive power is a long shot, most Republicans privately concede. Some even say that it is simply a way to quiet down the growing number of fringe Republicans who have said the party should move to impeach the president.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/boehner-lawsuit-walter-dellinger-witness-108808.html ”
House Democrats are tapping a former assistant attorney general and a top Carter administration official to serve as witnesses against a Republican plan to sue President Barack Obama.
One of the witnesses is Walter Dellinger, a former assistant attorney general, head of the Office of Legal Counsel and acting Solicitor General. Simon Lazarus, an associate director for President Jimmy Carter, will also testify at a House Rules Committee hearing next week on a resolution to sue Obama for alleged overreach of executive powers.
“Mr. Dellinger and Mr. Lazarus are two of the premier constitutional scholars in the United States today and they will be making a forceful legal argument for why the House’s lawsuit is without merit,” said New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee.
Speaker John Boehner announced on Thursday that a lawsuit against Obama would focus on executive orders delaying the employer mandate provision in Obamacare.
The Republican witnesses are Jonathan Turley, a noted constitutional scholar with the George Washington Law School and Florida International University law professor Elizabeth Price Foley.
Thank you Professor Turley for your continued patriotic efforts in protecting our Constitution!
Best of luck !
Success to you on your day in the bees nest.