You might know the name Jonathan Turley from his many appearances on the old Countdown with Keith Olbermann show and, most recently, from his vocal opposition to President Obama’s use of drones and NSA surveillance. He’s basically Glenn Greenwald but with a paycheck from the George Washington University Law School, where he’s a professor of constitutional law. Turley also joined Greenwald in reacting with ambivalence toward the Supreme Court’s highly controversial decision in the Citizens United case, which granted corporations constitutionally-protected free speech and the subsequent freedom to contribute untold billions to political campaigns as an exercise of this newly-acquired right.
And now, he’s Speaker John Boehner’s new lawyer in the House Republicans’ lawsuit against President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. In fact, he’s not just any lawyer in the case, he’s now the lead counsel.
Why? We’ll let him answer:
As many on this blog know, I support national health care and voted for President Obama in his first presidential campaign. However, as I have often stressed before Congress, in the Madisonian system it is as important how you do something as what you do. And, the Executive is barred from usurping the Legislative Branch’s Article I powers, no matter how politically attractive or expedient it is to do so. Unilateral, unchecked Executive action is precisely the danger that the Framers sought to avoid in our constitutional system. This case represents a long-overdue effort by Congress to resolve fundamental Separation of Powers issues.
It’s difficult to believe that not only the House Republicans but also a constitutional law professor would be so utterly clueless about the role of the Executive Branch and its bureaucracy in implementing congressionally-sanctioned laws, but there it is. This is precisely what Health and Human Services has been doing with regards to the Affordable Care Act. Implementing it. Suddenly this is unconstitutional.
Take, for example, the so-called “exemption from Obamacare”… CONTINUE READING