House Speaker John Boehner has hired prominent constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley to represent the House of Representatives in its lawsuit against President Obama’s unilateral move to delay implementation of an Obamacare provision requiring large firms to offer healthcare to their employees.
The first two attorneys whom Boehner tapped quit in succession, backing out after deciding that the issue was too politically charged to handle. Turley, a law professor at George Washington University in D.C., has been an outspoken critic of what he has viewed as executive overreach by both Obama and former President George W. Bush.
“Professor Turley is a renowned legal scholar who agrees that President Obama has clearly overstepped his Constitutional authority. He is a natural choice to handle this lawsuit,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.
Boehner, an Ohio Republican, has not ruled out expanding the lawsuit to include a challenge to Obama’s promised executive order to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants. For now, however, the lawsuit remains focused on Obamacare.
In 2011, Turley represented a bipartisan group of 10 House members who challenged Obama’s constitutional authority to prosecute the war in Libya without congressional approval.
