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Posted: 2014-11-21T15:24:21Z | Updated: 2014-12-09T16:59:01Z House Republicans File Obamacare Lawsuit | HuffPost

House Republicans File Obamacare Lawsuit

House Republicans File Obamacare Lawsuit
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House Republicans have filed an expected lawsuit against President Barack Obama over his implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The suit accuses the administration of acting without congressional authority in delaying the employer mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act. It also challenges the administration's giveaway of $175 billion to insurance companies under the law because the funds weren't explicitly appropriated by Congress.

The move comes just hours after the president announced that he was taking executive action to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation , a step that Republicans also deem worthy of legal recourse because of his decision to bypass Congress. The GOP lawsuit does not, however, include immigration.

Time after time, the president has chosen to ignore the will of the American people and re-write federal law on his own without a vote of Congress," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. "Thats not the way our system of government was designed to work. If this president can get away with making his own laws, future presidents will have the ability to as well. The House has an obligation to stand up for the Constitution, and that is exactly why we are pursuing this course of action.

Republicans struggled to find representation for the case. Constitutional lawyer and separation of powers advocate Jonathan Turley signed on earlier this week after two major law firms dropped the case.

"Unilateral, unchecked Executive action is precisely the danger that the Framers sought to avoid in our constitutional system. This case represents a long-overdue effort by Congress to resolve fundamental Separation of Powers issues. In that sense, it has more to do with constitutional law than health care law," Turley said in a note about the issue on his blog.

Democrats dismissed the lawsuit as nothing more than a political stunt.

The fact is, this lawsuit is a bald-faced attempt to achieve what Republicans have been unable to achieve through the political process," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement. "The legislative branch cannot sue simply because they disagree with the way a law passed by a different Congress has been implemented. It is clear, as one leading legal scholar put it, that this lawsuit is an embarrassing loser."

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Before You Go

Health Care Reform Efforts In U.S. History
1912(01 of17)
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Former President Theodore Roosevelt champions national health insurance as he unsuccessfully tries to ride his progressive Bull Moose Party back to the White House. (credit:Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
1935(02 of17)
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt favors creating national health insurance amid the Great Depression but decides to push for Social Security first. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1942(03 of17)
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Roosevelt establishes wage and price controls during World War II. Businesses can't attract workers with higher pay so they compete through added benefits, including health insurance, which grows into a workplace perk. (credit:Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
1945(04 of17)
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President Harry Truman calls on Congress to create a national insurance program for those who pay voluntary fees. The American Medical Association denounces the idea as "socialized medicine" and it goes nowhere. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1960(05 of17)
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John F. Kennedy makes health care a major campaign issue but as president can't get a plan for the elderly through Congress. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1965 (06 of17)
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President Lyndon B. Johnson's legendary arm-twisting and a Congress dominated by his fellow Democrats lead to creation of two landmark government health programs: Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. (credit:AFP/Getty Images)
1974(07 of17)
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President Richard Nixon wants to require employers to cover their workers and create federal subsidies to help everyone else buy private insurance. The Watergate scandal intervenes. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1976(08 of17)
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President Jimmy Carter pushes a mandatory national health plan, but economic recession helps push it aside. (credit:Central Press/Getty Images)
1986(09 of17)
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President Ronald Reagan signs COBRA, a requirement that employers let former workers stay on the company health plan for 18 months after leaving a job, with workers bearing the cost. (credit:MIKE SARGENT/AFP/Getty Images)
1988(10 of17)
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Congress expands Medicare by adding a prescription drug benefit and catastrophic care coverage. It doesn't last long. Barraged by protests from older Americans upset about paying a tax to finance the additional coverage, Congress repeals the law the next year. (credit:TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
1993(11 of17)
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President Bill Clinton puts first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in charge of developing what becomes a 1,300-page plan for universal coverage. It requires businesses to cover their workers and mandates that everyone have health insurance. The plan meets Republican opposition, divides Democrats and comes under a firestorm of lobbying from businesses and the health care industry. It dies in the Senate. (credit:PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
1997(12 of17)
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Clinton signs bipartisan legislation creating a state-federal program to provide coverage for millions of children in families of modest means whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid. (credit:JAMAL A. WILSON/AFP/Getty Images)
2003(13 of17)
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President George W. Bush persuades Congress to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare in a major expansion of the program for older people. (credit:STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images)
2008(14 of17)
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Hillary Clinton promotes a sweeping health care plan in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She loses to Barack Obama, who has a less comprehensive plan. (credit:PAUL RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
2009(15 of17)
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President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress spend an intense year ironing out legislation to require most companies to cover their workers; mandate that everyone have coverage or pay a fine; require insurance companies to accept all comers, regardless of any pre-existing conditions; and assist people who can't afford insurance. (credit:Alex Wong/Getty Images)
2010(16 of17)
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With no Republican support, Congress passes the measure, designed to extend health care coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people. Republican opponents scorned the law as "Obamacare." (credit:Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
2012(17 of17)
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On a campaign tour in the Midwest, Obama himself embraces the term "Obamacare" and says the law shows "I do care." (credit:BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)