Speaker John Boehner now has the authority to sue the president. House votes to sue Obama

The House voted along party lines Wednesday to move forward with a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, escalating tension between the executive and legislative branches months before the pivotal midterm elections.

The 225-201 vote authorizes Speaker John Boehner to take Obama to court on behalf of the House for delaying a provision in the health care overhaul that requires that most employers provide insurance to their workers. Republicans see the delay as a clear example of Obama overstepping his executive authority.


“This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats. It’s about defending the Constitution we swore an oath to,” Speaker John Boehner said. “Are you willing to let any president choose what laws to execute and what laws to change?”

All Democrats opposed the measure.

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“We are wasting the taxpayers’ time and money on the floor of the House,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said before the vote.

The lawsuit gives Republicans the chance to go on offense and gin up their base by highlighting what they see as executive overreach. But that strategy is becoming more complicated as Democrats and White House officials argue the lawsuit is merely the first step in a broader battle against Obama that could result in impeachment proceedings.

“Republicans have a history of doing this. They shut down the government under [former Speaker Newt] Gingrich and then impeached the president. Now they’ve already done half of that,” Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the minority whip, said this week. “The speaker has said things weren’t going to happen, and then days later they did happen and he changed his position.”

Republicans dismiss the impeachment talk, but the party is now in the awkward position of arguing that Obama is improperly exerting executive authority — but not in such a dramatic way that would warrant his removal from office.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Wednesday that Obama’s executive orders do “not rise to the high crimes and misdemeanor level” to warrant impeachment proceedings. Boehner (R-Ohio) has dismissed the impeachment talk as a “scam” by Democrats to gin up their base ahead of the midterm elections.

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Democrats are “trying to rally their people to give money and show up in this year’s elections. We have no plans to impeach the president,” Boehner said. “We have no future plans. It’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House.”

The lawsuit will now head to federal court where lawyers representing the House will argue that the delay of the employer mandate — a provision of the 2010 health care law mandating most businesses to provide health care for employees — was a clear example of the White House changing a law without congressional action.

It will likely take months, if not years, for the lawsuit to work through federal court, making it a high possibility the suit could last longer than the remainder of the Obama presidency. Before the case can move forward, a judge must first determine whether the House was sufficiently damaged by Obama to receive standing.

( Also on POLITICO: Ryan: W.H. orders aren't 'high crimes')

The lawsuit has proved to be lucrative for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which as of Monday evening had brought in $7.6 million in online donations since Boehner announced the lawsuit in June.

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