What You Need to Know About the House’s Obamacare Lawsuit

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Heritage Foundation:

The U.S. House of Representatives had its first day in court today after filing a lawsuit against the Obama administration for making unilateral changes to the Affordable Care Act in November. Now, a district judge must rule on whether the case will proceed.

 

Lawyers representing the Obama administration and the House of Representatives gathered today before U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer for the first hearing in a lawsuit challenging President Obama’s changes to the health care law—namely his delay of the employer mandate and the authorization of payments from the Treasury Department to insurance providers.

 

Congress, the House of Representatives contends, did not appropriate funds for those payments, which will cost taxpayers more than $175 billion over the next 10 years.

 

The House and its lawyer, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, argue these changes to the law violate the Constitution and are suing the Departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services.

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The Obama administration faced a skeptical judge Thursday as it tried to get the latest Obamacare lawsuit tossed.

 

Justice Department attorney Joel McElvain insisted the case shouldn't be allowed to move forward because the plaintiff, in this case the GOP-led House, lacks the standing to sue. The lawsuit charged that the administration implemented parts of the Affordable Care Act in ways not allowed by the law as it was passed by Congress in 2010.

 

"The House cannot sue the administration over existing federal law," McElvain argued before Rosemary Collyer, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

 

But Collyer, who is a George W. Bush appointee, grilled the administration's attorneys over the two-hour hearing. She told McElvain he didn't sufficiently address the GOP's charges that the administration overstepped its authority, and also pushed him to demonstrate when, if not in this circumstance, the legislative branch might ever be able to sue the executive branch.

 

"I want to know why you think this is only a dispute over implementation instead of an insult to the Constitution, as the House believes," she told McElvain.

 

"It's not direct, it's not direct," she added of McElvain's argument. "You have to address the argument they made and you haven't."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/insult-to-the-constitution-judge-presses-obama-lawyer-in-latest-obamacare-case/article/2565180

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Federal judge resists White House bid to toss John Boehner’s Obamacare lawsuit

A federal judge resisted the administration’s quest Thursday to kill the House GOP’s lawsuit over Obamacare, lending weight to Speaker John A. Boehner’s effort to have the courts step in to referee the simmering separation of powers feud between Congress and President Obama.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, presiding in Washington, pushed back against the Justice Department’s argument that the courts don’t have a role to play in refereeing the fight.

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” she told administration attorney Joel McElvain.

 

The exchange set the tone for a hearing in which the judge frequently interrupted the lawyer, and even joked toward the end that she had been too hard on him.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/28/federal-judge-skeptical-white-house-bid-toss-john-/

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Judge digs deeper into House GOP's lawsuit against Obama

 

A federal judge who is hearing a lawsuit from House Republicans against President Obama is requesting more information about a funding dispute at the center of the case.

 

The House argues the president overstepped his executive authority by using money for ObamaCare that was not appropriated by Congress.

The administration initially requested the funds to be appropriated for the healthcare law, but says it later realized the money was already available under permanent mandatory spending.

The funding question is at the heart of House v. Burwell, a case that is now in the hands of Judge Rosemary Collyer, an appointee of former President George W. Bush.

Collyer appeared skeptical last week of the administration’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, which House Republicans brought forward to challenge Obama’s use of executive power.

Now she is requesting more information to help sort out the competing claims

 

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/243626-judge-asks-for-spending-details-in-obamacare-lawsuit

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Burwell warns of 'death spiral' if Supreme Court rules against Obamacare

 

The Supreme Court will prompt a "death spiral" if it strikes Obamacare subsidies in most states later this month, a top administration official said Thursday.

 

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell was referring to the possibility that healthier people who don't have a pressing need for health coverage might drop out of insurance pools, leaving behind sicker customers and causing premiums to skyrocket.

 

That's what could happen if the justices uphold the King v. Burwell challenge. In that case, poor and middle-income Americans in the 37 states not running their own insurance marketplaces could lose Obamacare subsidies that make their health coverage affordable, causing them to drop out of insurance entirely.

 

There's nothing the administration can do to fix the problem besides helping states to run their own exchanges, Burwell has said in the past. She reiterated that position Thursday morning at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal, saying that the administration's ability to do more beyond that "is limited."

 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/burwell-warns-of-death-spiral-if-supreme-court-rules-against-obamacare/article/2565599