This is why John Bonerhead needs to step down from leadership. The end of the Boehner memo is priceless. It contends: Under our system of government, the Judicial Branch has the power to resolve disputes between the Executive and Legislative Branches. When there is a failure on the part of the president to faithfully execute the law, the House has the authority to challenge this failure in the Judicial Branch by filing suit in Federal Court in situations in which: There is no one else who can challenge the president’s failure, and harm is being done to the general welfare and trust in faithful execution of our laws; There is no legislative remedy; and There is explicit House authorization for the lawsuit, through a vote authorizing the litigation against the president’s failure. Everything asserted here is either untrue or abject nonsense: If no one is in a position to “challenge the president’s failure” to follow the law, that is because no one has suffered a concrete personal injury that would provide the standing necessary for a court case — judges are not there to resolve power disputes between the political branches. There is an institution that “can challenge the president’s failure” to execute the laws faithfully: It is the Congress. And there is a legislative remedy: Congress has the power to defund executive-branch activities and impeach lawless executive-branch officials, including the president himself. Either of those responses would stop the president’s lawlessness in its tracks. And sure, the leader of the opposition party controlling the House may well be able to pass an “explicit House authorization for the lawsuit” Boehner anticipates filing. After all, how hard is it to get a bunch of congressional Republicans to agree that punting to the courts is easier than rolling up their sleeves and doing their jobs? (See, e.g., Obamacare.) Boehner’s problem is not that Congress lacks a responsive arsenal. It is that he is afraid of the administration and press criticism attendant to using it. That’s a political problem, not a legal problem. Boehner and Beltway Republicans are essentially saying, “We can’t use our power because Obama and his media friends would say mean things about us. But our lunatic conservative base is demanding action. So let us file a lawsuit so we can say we did something. Who knows . . . maybe in a year or two we’ll get lucky and get a favorable ruling against Obama that can’t be enforced without Obama’s help.”
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 21:00:34 +0000
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