Health care law faces obstacle
Administration taken to task in federal court.
A federal judge takes the administration to task in a politically ballyhooed lawsuit.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge Thursday took seriously a politically ballyhooed lawsuit filed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives challenging the Obama administration’s implementation of the health care law.
In an 80-minute hearing, U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer resisted Justice Department claims that the House lacks the legal standing necessary to sue. While noting she has “no idea” what she ultimately will decide, Collyer leveled her hardest questions at the administration.
“It is, I think, a very serious disagreement,” Collyer said, adding that “whether the House has standing is a very different question than whether the (administration’s) action is lawful.”
Appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, Collyer repeatedly hammered Justice Department attorney Joel McElvain with sharp comments, telling him at various times, “You’re not getting my point,” and, “You are dodging my question.”
The attorney hired to represent the House, George Washington University law professor Jon- athan Turley, seemed to have an easier time.
“Of all the constitutional injuries that we can (imagine), this is the big ticket,” Turley said.
The oral argument held Thursday was the first for the House lawsuit, filed last November following many months of GOP threats and pledges. It could break new ground on broader questions about when Congress can sue the executive branch.
McElvain insisted that such congressional suits could only take place under “unique, narrow” circumstances.
The suit argues that the Obama administration is spending money on the health law that Congress hasn’t appropriated, and that the administration unilaterally amended the provisions written by Congress requiring employers to provide health insurance.
The employer man- date requires businesses with 100 or more employees to provide affordable health insurance for full-time workers or face a penalty of $2,000 per employee. The health law originally called for the penalties to begin in 2014, but the White House delayed their enforcement after complaints from business groups.
Republicans argued that the president lacked the authority to postpone the penalties.
The argument Thursday focused on the lawsuit’s other claim, that the administration spent unappropriated funds on insurance cost-sharing subsidies authorized by Section 1402 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. House Republicans and their supporters contend that spending violated the principle that Congress controls the power of the purse.