Last Time House Sued President, It Was Borked

Republicans supporting a lawsuit against President Barack Obama for failing to implement the Affordable Care Act would do well to look to history, former U.S. Congressman Michael Barnes writes in The Washington Post. In 1984, a bi-partisan group of House Members filed suit against President Reagan. The issue then was a certification Reagan was required to make vouching for the human rights record of the Salvadoran government. Reagan dodged the embarrassing issue by pocket-vetoing the bill requiring certification. The suit never made it to court but Conservative icon Robert Bork, then an appeals court judge, wrote a blistering memo in which he stated: “Those who drafted, proposed, and ratified the Constitution did not intend that the judiciary should entertain suits directly between the political branches of the national government.”