It is no news that Obama has ignored the need for checks and balances multiple times and has pushed through executive orders. But according to David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer, there are grounds to sue Obama for violating the law. See below via Allen B West:
Some will respond — actually try to defend — by stating all executives use presidential discretion. However, Will points out the difference, “Presidents must exercise some discretion in interpreting laws, must have some latitude in allocating finite resources to the enforcement of laws and must have some freedom to act in the absence of law. Obama, however, has perpetrated more than 40 suspensions of laws. Were presidents the sole judges of the limits of their latitude, they would effectively have plenary power to vitiate the separation of powers, the Founders’ bulwark against despotism.”
Will says that regarding immigration, health care, welfare, education, drug policy and more, Obama has suspended, waived and rewritten laws, including the Affordable Care Act. It required the employer mandate to begin this year. But Obama wrote a new law, giving to companies of a certain size a delay until 2016 and stipulating that other employers must certify they will not drop employees to avoid the mandate. It is here where Will believes there is a potential to take action. He recommends the House of Representatives pursue the course of bringing a lawsuit against Obama and feels there is standing.
David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer, and Elizabeth Price Foley of Florida International University have studied the case law and believe that standing can be obtained conditional on four things:
1. That a majority of one congressional chamber explicitly authorizes a lawsuit.
2. That the lawsuit concern the president’s “benevolent” suspension of an unambiguous provision of law that, by pleasing a private faction, precludes the appearance of a private plaintiff.
3. That Congress cannot administer political self-help by remedying the presidential action by simply repealing the law.
4. And that the injury amounts to nullification of Congress’s power.Read more: Allen B West
