“This Court should issue a landmark ruling in this case to prevent that national nightmare from ever approaching reality.”

WASHINGTON, DC (Dec. 29, 2014) — In a brief submitted today, the American Civil Rights Union asks the U.S. Supreme Court to stop President Obama from obliterating the separation of powers doctrine in the Constitution. Only Congress has the power to legislate, the brief notes.

At issue in King v. Burwell is the federal subsidy offered to enrollees in health insurance exchanges established by the federal government in the 36 states that did not create their own exchanges under Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) does not provide for subsidies except in the state-created exchanges. When the Internal Revenue Service issued a rule allowing subsidies through the federal exchanges, it ignored the clear wording of the ACA, says the brief, written by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara.

“This is a critical case coming at a critical time for our nation and its history. The President has famously announced that he has a phone and a pen, by which he means to say that he can govern the nation perfectly well without Congress. We understand that to imply that the President thinks he is ready and able to assume Congress’s Article 1 legislative powers….

“This Court should issue a landmark ruling in this case to prevent that national nightmare from ever approaching reality. That landmark ruling would unambiguously reaffirm that the President does not have the Article 1 legislative powers of Congress, and he must follow the law as enacted, even when he is sure he has a better idea, which this President has put at issue again and again.”