In an act that belongs in the trolling hall of fame, the House of Representatives has retained a lawyer who voted for President Obama and supports “national health care” to sue President Obama over Obamacare.
Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University legal scholar, has repeatedly testified about the eroding separation of powers among government branches. Such is the reason for his involvement in the House’s endeavor, which goes after the president for unilaterally delaying Obamacare’s employer mandate.
“As many on this blog know, I support national health care and voted for President Obama in his first presidential campaign,” Turley wrote on his website. “However, as I have often stressed before Congress, in the Madisonian system it is as important how you do something as what you do.”
And how the president acted to suspend a provision of his health care law, Turley argues, was the wrong way to do it.
“Unilateral, unchecked Executive action is precisely the danger that the Framers sought to avoid in our constitutional system,” Turley continued. “This case represents a long-overdue effort by Congress to resolve fundamental Separation of Powers issues. In that sense, it has more to do with constitutional law than health care law.”
Turley’s comments inject some much-needed dispassionate analysis into an emotional debate. Expressly focusing his concerns on the relationship between the executive and legislative branches isn’t nearly as politically volatile as debating the merits of Obamacare, and it’s obviously the appropriate emphasis. Given the president’s expected plan to act on immigration reform unilaterally, without Congress, Turley’s focus is also timely.
Ladies and gentlemen, a sweet, sweet picture of Lady Justice.
The suit against Obama has had a couple of false starts. The first two attorneys who were brought aboard to handle the matter, the Washington Examiner notes, quit after deciding the issue was too hot politically. In related news, a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi went after Turley’s hiring.
“Even for $500-per-hour in taxpayer dollars, Speaker Boehner has had to scour Washington to find a lawyer willing to file this meritless lawsuit against the president,” Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesperson, was quoted as saying in POLITICO. “Now, he’s hired a TV personality for this latest episode of his distraction and dysfunction.”
Turley, despite his liberal credentials, is no devotee of Obamacare.
“While I have long supported national health care, I was critical of the sloppy drafting of the [Affordable Care Act], the federalism conflicts contained in the individual mandate provision, and the unsupportable claims made by the White House in selling the Act,” Turley said last week, the latter comment pertaining to the damaging candor of Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber.
The House has yet to officially file its suit in federal court.
