By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
House Speaker John Boehner, (R) from Ohio, is moving forward with legal actions to ask the court to compel President Barack Hussein Obama to faithfully carry out the Nation’s laws. U.S. Representative Martha Roby (R) from Montgomery said on Thursday, July 10 that she supports Boehner’s decision.
Congresswoman Roby said, “Speaker Boehner is right to initiate legal action to rein in the Executive Branch and check this Administration’s blatant disregard for the rule of law. While the House has dutifully exercised Executive Branch oversight, we have limited legislative options, particularly with the Senate leadership’s unwillingness to do anything that might make the White House look bad.”
Speaker Boehner made the case for challenging executive actions in court as a way to stop the pattern of overreach by the Obama Administration in a memo sent to House members. Rep. Roby has long advocated for engaging the JuNdicial Branch as a check on what she called the Executive Branch’s increasingly imperial tendencies.
Rep. Roby said, “When the Executive Branch repeatedly acts outside of its authority and ignores the rule of law, the Judicial Branch has a responsibility to reconstitute the separation of powers. It might take time, but engaging the Judicial Branch might be the surest way to compel the President to faithfully execute the laws as they are written.”
Rep. Roby co-sponsored H. Res. 442, the STOP Resolution (Stop This Overreaching Presidency), which is designed to bring legal action from the House of Representatives on particularly egregious executive actions. The STOP Resolution was written by Rep. Tom Rice (R). The STOP Resolution would direct a civil action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging unilateral Obama Administration actions that flout Constitutional restraints on the Executive Branch.
According to Rep. Roby these include: The lifting of Affordable Care Act-mandated requirements on the type of insurance providers can offer; The arbitrary one-year delay of the health care law’s employer mandate; the adoption of a policy against deporting certain illegal immigrants, counter to U.S. immigration and naturalization laws; and the decision to waive compliance with “welfare to work” laws.
Rep. Roby said on the floor of the House that such legal action is regrettable, but necessary. “I wish this wasn’t necessary. I wish President Obama and his administration officials had the self-restraint to act within their Constitutional bounds. However, this Administration’s pattern of aggressively overstepping its authority to implement policy and win political battles leaves us no choice but to act.”
Rep. Roby said, “Our Constitutional constraints on government are not always convenient for political or policy goals. But, they are necessary for preserving the checks and balances that ensure this government still derives its authority from the people, not the other way around.”
Congresswoman Martha Roby represents Alabama’s Second Congressional District.
