U.S. House votes 225-201 to sue Obama

GOP says delays in fully activating health act illegal

House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, confers with Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., as the panel meets Wednesday to take the procedural steps to authorize the House to seek a lawsuit against President Barack Obama.

House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, confers with Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., as the panel meets Wednesday to take the procedural steps to authorize the House to seek a lawsuit against President Barack Obama.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

WASHINGTON -- A divided House approved a Republican plan Wednesday to sue President Barack Obama, accusing him of exceeding the bounds of his constitutional authority. Obama and other Democrats derided the effort as an election-year stunt.

The vote was 225-201, with five Republicans voting with all of the Democrats against the lawsuit. The four representatives from Arkansas, all Republicans, voted in favor.

The legal action focuses on Obama's decision to delay enforcement of certain provisions of the health care overhaul. Republicans said it was designed to prevent a further presidential power grab.

"No member needs to be reminded about the bonds of trust that have been frayed or the damage that's already been done to our economy and to our people," declared House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Are you willing to let any president choose what laws to execute and what laws to change?"

Republicans also scoffed at Democratic claims that the lawsuit would be a waste of taxpayers' money.

"What price do you place on the continuation of our system of checks and balances? What price do you put on the Constitution of the United States?" said Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich. "My answer to each is 'priceless.'"

Republicans provided no specifics about the potential price tag of the lawsuit, but the measure would allow House attorneys to hire outside lawyers and require quarterly public reports on expenditures.

Democrats said the lawsuit would go nowhere and was designed only to encourage conservatives to vote in November's congressional elections. They also warned repeatedly that it could be a precursor of a more drastic GOP effort.

"The lawsuit is a drumbeat pushing members of the Republican Party to impeachment," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.

Democrats already are using that argument to mine campaign contributions. In their latest appeal, House Democrats emailed a fundraising solicitation even as debate was underway, saying, "Republicans have said this lawsuit has 'opened the door' to impeachment."

The appeal asked for support for Democrats who "will finally put a stop to the Tea Party crazies and get President Obama's back."

Some House GOP lawmakers have not ruled out impeachment, but Boehner said he has no such plans and has called Democratic impeachment talk a "scam" to raise money.

On the road in Kansas City, Mo., Obama cast the lawsuit as a "political stunt" and a distraction from the public's priorities.

"Every vote they're taking like that means a vote they're not taking to actually help you," he told his audience. He urged Republicans to "stop just hating all the time."

By suing Obama to demand that he carry out specific provisions of the 2010 health care overhaul, House Republicans would be asking the courts to hold him to the letter of a law that they all opposed and that the House has voted over 50 times to dismantle.

Republicans have particularly objected that Obama has twice delayed the law's so-called employer mandate. The provision requires companies with 50 or more employees working at least 30 hours weekly to offer health care coverage or pay fines, while businesses with fewer than 50 workers are exempt.

The requirement was initially to take effect this year. Now, companies with 50 to 99 employees have until 2016 to comply while bigger companies have until next year.

Republicans have accused Obama of exceeding his powers in a range of other areas as well, saying he has enforced laws he likes and ignored others.

These include not notifying Congress before releasing five Taliban members from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for captive Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, blocking the deportation of some children who are in the U.S. illegally and waiving some provisions of the No Child Left Behind education law.

Democrats say Obama has acted legally using the authority he has as chief executive.

Republicans have not laid out a timetable for actually filing the suit.

Federal courts are often reluctant to intervene in disputes between the executive and legislative branches. For the suit to survive, the GOP would first have to prove that the House had been injured by Obama's actions.

If the lawsuit is heard, it is unclear whether it could be decided before Obama leaves office in January 2017.

Timothy Lewis, a former judge in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who was nominated by former President George H.W. Bush, said that with appeals, it would take at least a year and a half for the suit to wind through the federal judicial system.

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/31/2014