Challenge to Obama’s Unlawful Executive Action Heads to D.C. Circuit

AFLC_ObamaWar_banner IIToday, the American Freedom Law Center filed its opening brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in its lawsuit challenging President Obama’s unlawful executive orders regarding the implementation and enforcement of Obamacare.

On July 4, 2014, AFLC filed this action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Obama and several of his executive agencies for engaging in unlawful executive action that exceeds the authority of the Executive Branch and thus violates the separation of powers principles enshrined in the Constitution.

The lawsuit, which is captioned American Freedom Law Center v. Obama, alleges that Obama has violated his constitutional duty to “faithfully execute” the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

This lawsuit seeks to preserve those structural principles enshrined in our Constitution that are designed to protect private individuals from the tyranny of government, and in particular, from the tyranny of a single branch of government that seeks to usurp power and authority not permitted under the Constitution.

In this civil action, AFLC is challenging the ultra vires actions of the Executive Branch regarding its refusal to “faithfully execute” Obamacare.  By executive fiat, President Obama has licensed prohibited conduct and has engaged in a policy-based, non-enforcement of federal law for an entire category of individuals and organizations subject to the law in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.

As noted in the lawsuit, in 2013 millions of Americans received notices that their health insurance was cancelled, a result that was predictable in light of the mandates imposed by Obamacare. This caused a political firestorm for the White House because Obama had promised the American people that if “you like your health care plan, you can keep it”—a promise that was contrary to the clear and unambiguous language of the law.

Consequently, as a politically expedient measure, Obama engaged in a series of executive actions that materially altered Obamacare without approval from Congress.

As the Supreme Court recently stated,

“The power of executing the laws necessarily includes both authority and responsibility to resolve some questions left open by Congress that arise during the law’s administration.  But it does not include a power to revise clear statutory terms that turn out not to work in practice.”

In order to keep his broken promises and clean up the political mess he made, Obama disregarded his constitutional duty to obey the law of the land and flipped Obamacare upside down without Congressional approval.

At the end of the day, America is and must remain a “nation of laws, not of men,” as John Adams put it.  The lawlessness of this administration is breathtaking.  And the American people are sick and tired of this President’s flippant disregard for the Constitution and Congress’ unwillingness to do anything serious about it.  AFLC seeks to reverse this dangerous trend.