Should I laugh or should I cry? It’s not just the title of a 1981 song by Abba – it’s how you sometimes feel when something is either so absurd or so maddening or so something that you’re just not sure how to react. We here at DecodeDC think politics and the actions of those who play in the political arena are filled with laugh or cry moments. We hope you do too.
How many lawyers does it take for Congress to sue the President of the United States?
Well, at least three.
Things seemed to be going so well for House Speaker John Boehner this summer. His fellow Republicans gave him the go ahead to sue President Obama for executive overreach by delaying part of the Affordable Care Act without permission from Congress.
The first two lawyers hired to do the job quit. In fact, according to one account, they dumped the case so quickly they didn’t even have time to bill the taxpayers.
Now, the House has hired Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University and familiar legal eagle on television and at congressional hearings, to file the lawsuit.
The silver lining in all this delay may be that, at a reported price of $500 an hour, the original case could expand to include a few more executive actions – specifically the president’s expected action to protect millions of undocumented migrants from deportation.
Turley, a self-described liberal, noted that he voted for Obama in 2008 and even supported "national health care." But, he added, the House "had me at hello" with the merits of the case.
