Did the White House Push Firms to Dump the House Obamacare Lawsuit?
Judicial Watch intends to find out.
House Speaker John Boehner's office says rich Democrats are to blame for the House's difficulties finding legal representation. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, however, suspects a White House-led effort.
The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch is seeking proof that Obama administration officials helped strong-arm two law firms into ceasing work on the House of Representatives' planned lawsuit against the administration.
The House voted in July to authorize the lawsuit, which would challenge the administration’s delay of the Affordable Care Act’s employer health insurance mandate. The resolution gave House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, authority to hire outside attorneys for the case, and he did so.
But the suit has not been filed three months after the unusual House vote, due in part to unreliable law firm partnerships.
Attorney Bill Burck of the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan recently backed out of the lawsuit, Politico reported Wednesday, following a September exit by David Rivkin of BakerHostetler. The House’s contract with BakerHostetler allowed for payment up to $350,000, with $500 an hour for attorney fees.
Neither attorney responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit, and it’s unclear if they were paid for any work on the case. Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith says he doesn't know if they were paid, and the House Office of General Counsel did not respond to a request for comment.
Politico reports that political pressure from clients motivated the two firms to discontinue their work with the House. But Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton believes that pressure came – either directly or indirectly – from the executive branch.
“I think there’s a scandal behind this,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a grass-roots effort on behalf of firm clients going into the firm saying, 'It’s either them or us.' I think it’s run out of the White House or the administration generally. Whether I can prove it or not, I don’t know.”
Judicial Watch, an aggressive and litigious transparency advocate, intends to try. The group is drafting Freedom of Information Act requests seeking communications between the firms and officials, particularly those at the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services.
[VOTE: Should Boehner Sue Obama? ]
“If there was any messin’ to be done, it was probably done within those agencies or through those agencies from the White House,” Fitton says.
If the group comes up empty or is given a list of FOIA exemptions, Judicial Watch may sue.
“I can’t guarantee a lawsuit, but look, we sue a lot, so a lawsuit would not be surprising if they don’t comply with the FOIA law,” Fitton says.
Judicial Watch filed its own lawsuit against the employer mandate delay in October 2013, before Boehner and House Republicans announced their election-year plans for a similar suit. The Judicial Watch case was brought on behalf of Kawa Orthodontics, a Florida company whose owner, Dr. Larry Kawa, says he spent time and money in an effort to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s Jan. 1, 2014, implementation date for the employer mandate.
Kawa argues the harm may be amplified if the mandate – now slated for 2016 implementation – is delayed any longer.
Earlier this month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta heard arguments on whether Kawa has standing to bring the suit. If the appeals court rules in his favor, the case will be returned to district court. The House lawsuit, if it's filed, is expected to face a similar dispute over standing.
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