House May Vote on Presidential Lawsuit at End of July

Speaker of the House John Boehner is reportedly considering holding a vote to sue President Barack Obama in late July, according to Daniel Newhauser of Roll Call. The Speaker will likely focus at most on only a small number of alleged failures to carry out legislation Congress has passed. One potential area a lawsuit could target might be Obamacare. The President, for instance, has authorized a number of delays for various requirements stipulated in the law. It is unclear how a suit would fare in court, since the judiciary often refrains from intervening in disputes between the two “political” branches. Courts have ruled in the past that the Executive and Legislative Branches have sufficient powers to settle their own disputes. President Obama’s press secretary Josh Earnest has said that the lawsuit is “not something that’s going to consume the attention of the White House”.

Roll Call: Boehner Moving Toward Late-July Obama Lawsuit Vote

ABC News: Boehner Insists Obama Lawsuit “Not About Impeachment”

President Obama Requests Emergency Appropriation for Unaccompanied Minor Immigrants

With a House lawsuit looming and the President declaring he would implement as much of his agenda as possible without congressional approval, it’s an understatement to say that Executive-Legislative relations are poor. However, per the Constitution, he still needs the Congress to allocate money for him. On Tuesday, he requested a $3.7 billion emergency appropriation to address the issue of thousands of minors crossing the Southern border without adult guardians. Prior to his request, a number of Republicans criticized the President for failing to secure the border, but at the same time conceded the need for such money. Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the government should not take on additional debt for such a grant; he suggested instead that they cut some funding from Obamacare to pay for the appropriation.

The $3.7 billion emergency appropriation is part of a larger $4.3 billion request, which also asks for money to be spent to combat wildfires in the West.

Roll Call: Obama Still Needs Congress to Show Him the Money

Politico: Obama Requests $3.7 billion for Child Migrants

The Hill: Obama Wants $3.7B for Border

And for our latest post: Using the “Pen and Phone” to Blur the Separation of Powers

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