Judge Rosemary Collyer's
unorthodox decision that the Congress can sue the White House over a dispute about Obamacare spending didn't come as a total shock to the Justice Department. This is the George W. Bush-appointed judge who
mulled impeachment as a remedy for the House in arguments. So the White House was
prepared, but that doesn't lessen the potential damage this decision could do, either to the affordability of Obamacare or for future legislative/executive disputes.
The Justice Department, which had argued that the dispute amounted to a political disagreement that should be settled outside of the legal system, said it would appeal. The White House had anticipated that it could lose at the lower court level and said it expected the decision to be overturned.
"The law is clear that Congress cannot try to settle garden-variety disputes with the executive branch in the courts," said Jennifer Friedman, a White House spokeswoman. "This case is just another partisan attack —this one, paid for by the taxpayers—and we believe the courts will ultimately dismiss it."
Other legal experts warned the decision could have far-reaching consequences if upheld.
"This decision would be a radical expansion of the role of unelected judges to resolve disputes that are essentially political," said Walter Dellinger, who served as acting solicitor general in the Clinton administration. "The Supreme Court has not gone down that road before, and I doubt they will go down that road now."
You might remember that
this all started when Speaker John Boehner had to come up with something to mollify his problem children over immigration executive actions and decided that Obamacare would be it. They eventually settled on the decision by the White House to
do something House Republicans had been clamoring for, postponing implementation of the employer mandate. Then they decided that this probably wasn't going to cut it with a judge (see that whole issue of political disputes) so by the time they got the suit filed months later, they had
added a complaint about the White House's decision to provide a supplemental subsidy to the lowest income Obamacare enrollees in private plans. These subsidies help cover deductibles and copays. The White House
maintains that the law "states clearly that government reimbursement to private insurance companies to help cover healthcare premiums is mandatory and not subject to Congress’s annual spending bills." But it's a spending issue that team Boehner thought would have better luck.
Team Boehner was right, as Collyer tossed the whole silly employer mandate part of the suit. Nonetheless, Boehner praised the decision, saying "I am grateful to the court for ruling that this historic overreach can be challenged by the coequal branch of government with the sole power to create or change the law." In fact, Boehner is so psyched about this win, he's ready to keep on suing on the taxpayer's dime. He says he might just have to sue the president over the Iran agreement.