The U.S. House of Representatives authorized House Speaker John Boehner to proceed with his lawsuit against President Barack Obama on Wednesday.
The vote unsurprisingly largely came along party lines 225-201, with five Republicans siding with Democrats and voting about the lawsuit, which seeks to challenge Obama's authority over the ACA employer mandate, The Wall Street Journal reports.
"This isn't about Republicans and Democrats," Boehner tried to convince the House ahead of the vote. "It's about defending the Constitution we swore an oath to uphold."
While the House has granted Boehner permission to file the lawsuit, some wonder whether courts will actually take up the lawsuit. "We're in uncharted waters, and I think any judicial court would want to avoid weighing in," William and Mary law professor Tara Grove. "I'd be very surprised if the court grants standing."
The issue is whether a court could find that Obama not enforcing the mandate, which Republicans have never wanted actually implemented, harmed the House at all.
Ahead of the vote, the president slammed Republicans, calling the lawsuit nothing more than a "political stunt," according to NBC News. Obama also noted Congress should "stop hatin' all the time."
Talk of a lawsuit - or impeachment - hasn't hurt the president much, or Democrats in general, since it was revealed House Dems have seen a noticeable uptick in campaign donations.
"At 1 o'clock this morning, I got an e-mail from our online fundraising department telling me that yesterday we raised $1 million online," Rep Steve Israel said. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also raised $2.1 million over the weekend.
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