Justice Department to Respond Monday to 'Obamacare' Court Challenge: Doctors Seek Injunction Against White House 'Coercion' of Congress

GREENBELT, Md., Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Monday, February 8, the U.S. Department of Justice must respond in Federal District Court to a request by physicians opposed to President Barack Obama's healthcare bill for an injunction barring his Administration "from undertaking in the future to intimidate or coerce any member of Congress" to vote for the plan. The injunction request, filed on behalf of Daniel G. Anderson of Chevy Chase, Maryland, and nine prominent physicians from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, claims that President Obama "already has abused his executive powers in an effort to leverage control over the vote of key moderate Senators" and that if he is not barred from similar actions "irreparable harm is actual and imminent." 

The physicians' injunction request is part of a suit filed last month and currently pending before Chief Judge Peter J. Messitte (Case No. 8:10-00017.PJM). Arguing on behalf of the physicians, Hagerstown Attorney R. Martin Palmer argues that President Obama and officials of his Administration have violated the principle of separation of powers that is fundamental to the U.S. constitutional system by such measures as threatening moderate Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson with closure of Offutt Air Force Base.  Included in evidence placed before the Court is a letter from 20 Senate Republicans to Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and Ranking Member John McCain (R-AZ) asking for a hearing to investigate the allegation. 

In a brief supporting their injunction request, the physicians argue that "while the President admittedly can help shape legislation prior to its presentation to him for signature," he cannot exercise his power to "intimidate or coerce" Senators and Congressmen "in the exercise of their exclusive constitutional authority to make laws, without improperly exceeding his authority under the Constitution and thereby acting ultra vires."  The brief cites the "dangerous" concentration of both legislative and executive powers in the Executive Branch, as voiced by Thomas Jefferson to George Washington: "I could not but be uneasy when I saw that the Executive had swallowed up the Legislative branch."

Lawyers for the Administration must present their response to the injunction request to Judge Messitte by close of business on Monday, February 8.   It is expected that oral argument will be scheduled for shortly thereafter. 

At the links, view in their entirety (1) the brief in support of the physicians' injunction request, and (2) the physicians' original complaint. 

SOURCE Physicians Against Obama