Boehner's resignation won't end House ACA lawsuit

The House's lawsuit against the Obama administration over the Affordable Care Act will likely move forward despite Speaker John Boehner's surprise announcement last week that he would resign at the end of October.

“It's become clear to me this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution,” Boehner said during a news conference. “This isn't about me. It's about the people. It's about the institution.”

Meanwhile, the lawsuit he and other House Republicans spearheaded continues to make its way through the courts. House v. Burwell accuses the Obama administration of spending money on the ACA's cost-sharing provisions without congressional appropriation. Millions of enrollees who meet certain income guidelines have reduced deductibles, copayments and coinsurance. The government reimburses payers for the assistance.

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 assistant professor at the South Texas College of Law, agreed that Boehner's resignation won't 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.

A federal judge recently allowed the suit to proceed, saying the House has legal standing to sue. The House argues the administration stole its constitutional power of the purse. The administration has countered that the courts shouldn't decide political battles and is seeking an immediate appeal of that preliminary decision.

It's unlikely the next speaker will drop the lawsuit. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is widely thought to be Boehner's likely successor, and McCarthy has been a vocal advocate of the litigation.

Boehner said little about his reasons for leaving. But an upcoming vote on the budget was likely to worsen the long-standing tension between the speaker and the party's more conservative members who want to defund Planned Parenthood. Failure to pass a continuing budget resolution by the end of this month would have led to a government shutdown.

The proposition put Boehner in an intractable position, said Todd Rehm, a Republican strategist and editor of the GaPundit website. On one hand, Boehner is against abortion. On the other hand, he doesn't want to shut down the government.

The issue is likely the straw that broke the camel's back after years of criticism from the party's right flank about Boehner's leadership.

“To get to the point where a single issue is enough for somebody like John Boehner to leave Congress requires a great deal of strain being placed on him,” Rehm said.