House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Oh.) plan to sue President Obama for misusing executive powers has been met with a combination of praise, skepticism, and outrage.
Many conservatives have been calling for Republicans in Congress to use whatever means they have at their disposal to halt the expansion of executive power and force the Administration to uphold the rule of law, especially when it comes to immigration. For many of them, the lawsuit has been a welcomed development.
But other conservatives view it as little more than a political stunt.
“I realize John Boehner and the House Republicans may lack the testicular fortitude to fight President Obama,” Fox News contributor Erick Erickson recently wrote on his blog, “but I would kindly ask that he save the taxpayers further money on a political stunt solely designed to incite Republican voters.”
Democrats have used the suit to continue hammering away at Republicans, dubbing the House the “do-nothing Congress” and the GOP as a whole as the “Party of no.”
“As long as they’re doing nothing, I’m not going to apologize for doing something,” President Obama said in response to the lawsuit. “So sue me.”
Boehner has reportedly been mulling the lawsuit since early 2014 and disclosed it to House Republicans last month. Some House members and legal scholars have expressed skepticism that they have standing to file the suit at all. Boehner argues that the House has standing if the full House authorizes it, if “harm is being done to the general welfare,” and if “there is no legislative remedy.” Skeptics have shot back that the power of the purse and even impeachment are legislative powers Congress could use to rein in the Administration.
The measure is expected to first go to the House Rules Committee for a hearing, and will then go to the full House for a vote.
According to a House floor speech today by Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL1), the suit will have his full support when it gets to that point.
“Everywhere I go in my District, from the grocery store to town hall meetings, I hear the same thing over and over again: this president will not stay within the bounds of the Constitution of the United States or the laws passed by this body and the Senate, and it’s time that we stand up to that,” Byrne said. “That’s why I joined in support of the proposal by the esteemed speaker of this House, the gentleman from Ohio, that this House bring a lawsuit to bring the president back within bounds. I do so reluctantly. I wish we didn’t have to do that. The president’s response to this was to say, ‘so sue me.’ So, Mr. President, we will sue you, not because we want to, because we have to defend the Constitution you won’t abide by. We have to protect the rights of the people of this country that you continue to transgress.”
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