Court Date Set for House Republican's Lawsuit

Press Release

A hearing date is set for the U.S. House of Representative's lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration's executive order delaying the employer mandate provision of Obamacare. On May 28 at 10:00 a.m., attorneys will argue the House's standing before a D.C. Federal District Court.

The House voted to authorize the lawsuit over the President's abuse of power in July 2014. The authorized lawsuit is a scaled-down version of the Stop This Overreaching Presidency (STOP) Resolution introduced Congressman Tom Rice (R-SC-07) in December 2013. After the STOP Resolution gained support from a majority of the House Republican majority, House leaders used the legislation as a framework for their case.

"Article II, section 3 of the Constitution provides in part that the President shall "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," said Rice. "The President has the right to exercise reasonable discretion; however, he may not choose which laws or portions to enforce. Last summer, President Obama unilaterally delayed the employer mandate for business owners, but deliberately chose not to delay the individual mandate for everyday Americans. By doing so, he assessed a tax against one group of Americans while providing a pass to another.

"In comparison, this lawsuit is more significant than King v. Burwell because it goes further than questioning the constitutionality of a law. It defines our government's separation of powers and has the potential to reset the relationship between the executive branch and legislative branch to that outlined in the Constitution," Rice concluded.

Constitutional Scholar and George Washington University Professor, Jonathan Turley, is overseeing the lawsuit. When asked about the lawsuit during an interview with MSNBC, Turley, who has supported the President and his policies, said, "When the president went to Congress and said that he was going to go it alone, it obviously raises a concern because there's no license for going it alone in our system."

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