By Lee Hedgepeth
Alabama Political Reporter
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Baker Hostetler, the law firm that authored the memo exposing the money funneling scheme between officials in the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national GOP PAC, and Speaker of the Alabama House – then ALGOP chairman – Mike Hubbard, will now take on a new, even more high profile role: suing the President of the United States.
David Rivkin, a partner at the D.C.-based law firm, has been chosen as the primary lawyer in moving forward with a suit against U.S. President Barack Obama, authorized by a vote of the House of Representatives earlier this month.
According to officials with Speaker of the U.S. House John Boehner, the five month contract with Baker Hostetler authorizes $500 an hour for legal services provided, up to a cost cap of $350,000.
The suit authorized by the House stems from concerns that President Obama has overstepped his Executive authority through the use of Executive actions, administrative orders taken without the approval of Congress.
He has garnered particular criticism for some of these Executive orders which, have allowed for delays in, for example, the implementation of certain provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act. These actions, some say, constitute a legally unsupported denial to enforce the law.
Rivkin, who will now represent the House in the suit, has publicly laid out his expansive theory in relation to this purported overreach in power in previous lectures, likely a factor in the decision to hire his firm.
That theory was essentially summed up in a statement released by the House Administration Committee Chairwoman when the announcement of the choice of counsel was made:
“No President is above nor should operate beyond the limits of the Constitution,” she said….The House of Representatives, using regular order and the powers that the Constitution has provided, calls upon our government’s system of checks and balances and ask the judicial branch to examine the President’s failure to faithfully execute the laws.”
Baker Hostetler was the firm chosen by the Republican State Leadership Committee to investigate the groups relationship with Alabama politician Mike Hubbard, which they determined to be “politically toxic” and likely “illegal.”
