Breaking: Boehner Obamacare Suit Replaces Baker Hostetler with Quinn Emanuel

September 19th, 2014

I had heard recently that the House was going to replace David Rivkin and Baker Hostetler, as his firm pressured him to not take the Boehner law suit. Politico confirmed these reports:

House Republicans have replaced the firm managing their lawsuit against President Barack Obama for alleged abuses of executive authority after the first attorney backed out of the contract under political pressure, according to GOP aides.

House Administration Committee Chairwoman Candice Miller (R-Mich.) signed a new contract on Friday with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart’s William Burck after David Rivkin, an attorney with Baker & Hostetler, pulled out from the case.

Baker & Hostetler faced pressure “political pressure,” a Republican leadership aide said after taking the lawsuit on, prompting Rivkin to break his contract with House Republicans. A House staffer said the change of firms came after multiple clients of Baker & Hostetler expressed concern that the firm was engaged in what the companies saw as an overtly partisan lawsuit.

Neither Rivkin not Burck immediately returned a request for comment.

I do have more on this story, but you’ll have to wait for the book.

The Politico story also confirms what I’ve heard that there may be other suits focusing on immigration:

Separately, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said on CSPAN’s Newsmakers that the Obamacare lawsuit may not be the only legal action the House takes against Obama. The Virginia Republican said that if Obama unveils executive actions on immigration reform in November, the GOP could draft a second lawsuit.

I had always though immigration was a much better vehicle than Obamacare, so stay tuned.