I’ve made this point before, but I’d like to make it again: Exactly why is John Boehner’s lawsuit against President Obama so frivolous? I don’t mean this in a strictly legal sense. It may be that the suit fails immediately for lack of standing.1 Or that the merits of this particular case don’t hold water. We can let the lawyers battle that out.
Politically, though, what’s wrong with asking a court to decide if a federal agency has overstepped the will of Congress in its execution of the law? The answer, of course, is: nothing. People do it all the time, hundreds of times a year. The 
only difference here is that a house of Congress is doing it. But why does that suddenly make it frivolous?
It could be that you think courts should stick to their traditional practice of staying neutral in “political” disputes between branches of the government. That’s fine. But it’s not an argument that’s gotten much air time. You might also think it sets a bad precedent. But again, I’m not hearing that. Instead, the argument seems to be that this suit is simply absurd on its face, an idiotic piece of grandstanding by the Republican Party.
There’s no question that it’s a piece of grandstanding. Nor that House Republicans could be making better use of their time. And yes, it’s obviously deeply politically motivated. But that doesn’t mean it’s frivolous. So once again: why is it that suing a federal agency over its interpretation of a law suddenly becomes ridiculous just because Congress does it?
I’m open to good arguments on this score. Go ahead and convince me.
1I hope not, though. I understand why standing is important,2 but I’m unhappy that there seem to be a fair number of colorably important cases in which it’s all but impossible to find someone with standing to sue. That’s just not right.
2Honest, I really do.
