Fate of Obama legacy initiatives in hands of courts, successor

Reuters: When President Barack Obama leaves office on 20 January after eight years, several of his major initiatives will still hang in the legal balance, meaning the US courts and his successor will play a major role in shaping his legacy.

Ongoing legal challenges by Republican-governed states and business groups are targeting Obama’s signature healthcare law, his plan to combat climate change, a key immigration initiative, his transgender rights policy, his “net neutrality” internet rules, overtime pay for workers and other matters.

Most of the cases are awaiting rulings by trial judges or regional federal appeals courts and could be bound for the US Supreme Court, but are unlikely to get there until after the winner of Tuesday’s election, pitting Democrat Hillary Clinton against Republican Donald Trump, is sworn in.

Unless the US Senate changes course and confirms Obama’s nominee, appellate court judge Merrick Garland, to fill the vacant ninth seat on the ideologically split Supreme Court, the next president would be responsible for selecting a new justice who could cast the deciding vote in these cases.

The Supreme Court has already agreed to decide a major transgender rights case. Obama’s administration is backing a female-born transgender high school student named Gavin Grimm, who identifies as male and sued in 2015 to win the right to use the school’s boys’ bathroom. A ruling, which also could resolve similar litigation around the country, is not due until the end of June.

In another transgender rights case, a number of states challenged the Obama administration’s May guidance to public schools nationwide to let transgender students use bathrooms of their choice. A federal judge blocked the policy in August while the litigation continues.

Because Obama during much of his presidency has faced a Republican-controlled Congress hostile to his legislative initiatives, he has often bypassed lawmakers and used executive power to advance policy goals.

“Despite having majorities in both houses of Congress, Republicans have refused to govern. Instead, this litigious Republican Party has rushed to the courts with partisan lawsuits,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

Those challenging Obama have vowed to fight on unless his successor changes course.

“Should a new administration rescind those policies and respect the bounds placed before it, we will happily direct our energies elsewhere,” added Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has helped spearhead various legal challenges to Obama.

Clinton, backed by Obama in her White House bid, could be expected to leave in place or even expand on his initiatives and to defend them in court. Trump, if elected, could quickly reverse Obama executive orders as promised. But undoing large-scale regulations like power plant emissions rules could be more complicated.

“It’s not at the stroke of a pen,” said Sean Donahue, a lawyer representing environmental groups that backed Obama administration climate rules known as the Clean Power Plan.

Trump would have to undergo a new, lengthy rule-making process, according to legal experts.

Clean power plan

The case with the biggest potential long-term impact is the challenge by states and industry groups to Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would curb greenhouse emissions mainly from coal-fired power plants. The rules are an important legacy issue for Obama. They also are vital to US obligations under last year’s international climate change treaty.

A federal appeals court heard oral arguments in September. A ruling is not due for months. The case is likely to go to the Supreme Court on appeal.

The Supreme Court put the regulations on hold in February while the litigation continues. Republicans and conservative groups have launched numerous challenges to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015 issued rulings preserving Obama’s top legislative achievement.

Now, another Republican-led legal challenge is making its way through the courts. The administration has appealed a district court judge’s May decision that the federal government cannot spend billions of dollars to provide subsidies under Obamacare to help individuals buy policies from private insurers without congressional approval.

Separately, the administration is seeking in federal court in Texas to revive Obama’s 2014 executive action to protect millions of immigrants in the country illegally from deportation and give them work permits. The plan, challenged by Texas and other states, has been barred by the courts. The Supreme Court, split 4-4, in June left in place lower court orders blocking the plan, and in October declined to revisit that ruling.

Other Obama regulations have been targeted by business groups. A federal appeals court in June upheld Obama’s landmark “net neutrality” rules barring internet service providers from obstructing or slowing down consumer access to web content. The case remains under appeal.

In September, states and business groups filed a legal challenge to an administration rule to extend mandatory overtime pay to millions of workers. A ruling is not due until after Obama leaves office.

‘Do for Hillary what you did for me,’ Obama urges Americans

AFP: President Barack Obama on Monday urged Americans to make history by electing Democrat Hillary Clinton to succeed him in the White House, and reject the “mean-spirited” politics of Donald Trump.

“I ask you to do for Hillary what you did for me,” Obama told a rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan -- the first of three he is holding for Clinton on the eve of the vote.

“You have the chance to reject a coarse, divisive, mean-spirited politics that would take us backwards,” he said. “The chance to elect our first female president.”

Obama and his wife Michelle have been among Clinton’s most effective champions, drumming up enthusiasm for the former secretary of state as she battled setbacks in the polls.

Michigan, normally a Democratic stronghold, has emerged as a crucial battleground this year, one that Trump, the Republican nominee, hopes will give him a path to victory.

Obama reminded voters that his administration rescued the state’s dominant auto industry from the brink of collapse in 2008.

“All that progress goes down the drain if we don’t win tomorrow,” he said, adding, “This race will be close here in Michigan, just like it will be in a lot of parts of the country.”

“I want you just to focus, because the choice you face when you step into the voting booth, it really cannot be clearer. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief,” he said.

“The good news is, you don’t just have to vote against something. You actually have a candidate who’s worthy of your vote. A candidate who is smart. A candidate who is steady. A candidate who’s tested. Probably the most qualified person ever to run for this office. The next president of the United States -- Hillary Clinton!”

Obama was to rally voters in Durham, New Hampshire later in the day before joining up with Clinton for a big, star-studded campaign event in Philadelphia.

He admitted to experiencing some nostalgia campaigning for what he said was likely to be the last time in a while.

“It’s not that often you’ve got a chance to move history in a better direction. This is one of those moments. This is one of those moments. Don’t let it slip away,” he said.