The attorney who founded Judicial Watch, became a thorn in the side of presidents in court including Bill Clinton, inspired a “West Wing” character and was the first lawyer to obtain a court ruling that a president committed a crime has filed a request with the U.S. Supreme Court that Elena Kagan either remove herself or be removed from the Obamacare case.
The friend-of-the-court brief in cases demanding the “recusal or disqualification of Justice Elena Kagan” was filed today by Larry Klayman, now of Freedom Watch USA.
Klayman, known for tackling corruption in the nation’s capital, recently was awarded a default judgment in a case brought against Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on behalf of victims of his government’s torture campaign. Damages have yet to be established, but estimates are it could surpass the hundreds of millions.
Kagan has been facing criticism for her apparent decision to participate in the Obamacare case, which is to be argued in coming weeks, because she served Obama as solicitor general when the law was being developed. Emails indicate she was rooting for it, and she may even have strategized on how to defend it in court.
Klayman’s request comes in the case National Federal of Independent Business et al. vs. Kathleen Sebelius, as well as Florida et al. v. Department of Health and Human Services.
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The rulings at the lower level determined Obama could not constitutionally demand that every American buy the health insurance program that the government specifies – a key requirement for his Obamacare nationalization of health care to succeed. Obama’s Department of Justice appealed.
Klayman’s brief says his organization is “dedicated to preserving freedom, pursuing individual rights and civil liberties, while fighting for ethics in government and the judicial system.”
Obamacare, he says, “is seeking to intrude into citizens’ rights, regulating private and intimate aspects of an individual’s life without regard to the Constitution. In doing so, the government is expanding the scope of its limited and enumerated powers to a level never before seen.”
Noting that a majority of Americans oppose Obamacare, he says his organization “seeks to provide the means and mechanism to protect American citizens’ rights.”
Toward that goal, he writes, he is seeking “the recusal, and, if necessary, disqualification of Justice Elena Kagan in the decision of the constitutionality of [Obamacare].”
