House suit against Obama gets a boost from Supreme Court decision on standing
President Barack Obama. LaMarr McDaniel / Shutterstock.com
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on standing may bolster a lawsuit challenging federal reimbursements under the health-care law with money that was not appropriated by Congress.
A federal judge is considering whether the U.S. House of Representatives has standing to sue over the Obama administration’s decision to pay insurers for co-payments made to low-income people buying subsidized insurance, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Government officials concluded they didn’t need to ask Congress for an appropriation to cover the payments because they were mandatory under the Affordable Care Act.
The House suit “was once derided as a certain loser,” according to the story. But the June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court gave the House suit an apparent boost, despite a footnote in Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s majority opinion saying the court wasn’t deciding “whether Congress has standing to bring a suit against the president.”
The June decision by Ginsburg found that the Arizona Legislature had standing to sue over a ballot measure that gave authority to draw congressional districts to an independent commission.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley is representing the House in the lawsuit, which originally accused the president of improperly delaying the health-law’s employer mandate to provide health insurance for employees. The amended suit now accuses the administration of usurping Congress’ “power of the purse.”
