Speaker Boehner’s Resignation Will Not Affect House of Representatives v. Burwell

September 30th, 2015

In Modern Healthcare, Nick Bagley and I agree that the Speaker’s resignation will have no impact whatsoever on the House’s pending suit against HHS’s implementation of the ACA:

Boehner and other Republicans launched the lawsuit after they voted to approve a resolution in 2014 allowing it. That resolution vested control over the litigation in the speaker of the House, noted Nicholas Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan.

“Unless Speaker Boehner pulls the plug on the litigation before he resigns, it’ll be up to the next speaker to decide whether the case should continue,” Bagley wrote in an e-mail.

Josh Blackman, an associate law professor at the South Texas College of Law, also said he doesn’t think Boehner’s resignation will make a difference when it comes to the lawsuit.

“The case is U.S. House of Representatives v. Burwell, not Boehner v. Burwell,” Blackman said in an e-mail. “The House already voted to approve the legislation in 2013, and voted on it again in 2015, so the suit is authorized to proceed.”

When Nick and I agree about Obamacare, you can pretty much take that to the bank.