DOJ: Congress Can't Sue If Prez Orders Treasury To Pay For Everyone's Health Care
Source: Talking Points Memo
By Tierney Sneed
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April 28, 2020 10:52 a.m.
U.S. appellate judge Merrick Garland pushed the Justice Department to the logical extremes of its defense of President Trump by getting a DOJ lawyer to say that Congress couldn’t sue if an administration on its own decided to pay for uninsured people’s health care.
The hypothetical came up in the oral arguments for two blockbuster cases in the ongoing war between Trump and the Democratic House. The cases were argued together Tuesday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Garland’s questions appeared particularly geared to the House’s lawsuit seeking to block the administration from using national emergency powers to pay for the border wall Congress refused to fund.
The Justice Department is arguing that Congress cannot use lawsuits to resolve spending disputes it has with the executive branch, an argument that a Trump-appointed district court judge previously backed.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/doj-congress-cant-sue-if-prez-orders-treasury-to-pays-for-everyones-health-care
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For more than a year, the House Judiciary Committee has been seeking the testimony of the former White House Counsel, who featured prominently in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. The committee filed a lawsuit in July seeking a court order enforcing the April 2019 subpoena. A federal judge backed the House last fall, but her decision was reversed earlier this year in a 2-1 appeals court decision.
That decision, handed down by two GOP appointees, said that courts did not have the authority to resolve subpoena disputes between the executive and legislative branches, a stunning blow to Congress’ ability to perform government oversight — not just this administration, but administrations in the future.
Democratic-appointees make up a majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Trump’s two appointees on the powerful court have both recused themselves from Tuesday’s arguments, presumably because of their previous roles in the administration. (Another GOP appointee is sitting for the border wall case only.)
It appears likely that the McGahn case will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, which has on its plate this term a House subpoena lawsuit seeking documents from Trump’s financial firms.
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