Larry Klayman wins round against Obama health reform effort
Klayman and a new legal group he founded, Freedom Watch, filed suit in 2009 against President Barack Obama and what Klayman called the "Obama Health Reform De Facto Advisory Committee."
The suit alleges that as the administration pressed for passage of health care reform legislation, White House officials set up a panel of lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AARP, the American Medical Association and others to build support for the measure.
The lawsuit claims that by meeting secretly and through its allegedly unbalanced composition the group violated an open government law, the Federal Advisory Committee Act .
Justice Department lawyers moved to throw out Klayman's suit on a variety of grounds, but on Friday U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts ruled that part of Klayman's suit can go forward.
"Freedom Watch has alleged sufficiently in its complaint that the committee here was an advisory committee under the FACA, Freedom Watch may be entitled to mandamus review against the president, and dismissing the complaint on separation of powers grounds would be premature," Roberts wrote in a 15-page ruling (posted
here).