John Boehner Considering Lawsuit Against President Obama Over Immigration Order

It looks like House Speaker John Boehner is looking to bring another lawsuit against president Obama -- this time over the president's executive action on immigration. In a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, Boehner discussed taking legal action to voice House Republican’s distaste for the order.

“We are finalizing a plan to authorize litigation on this issue, one we believe gives us the best chance of success,” Boehner reportedly told GOP lawmakers during their weekly meeting, according to a Republican official cited by MSNBC.

With roughly one month left before the Homeland Security Department runs out of funding, House Republicans are looking for any conceivable way to stop the president’s decision from last year to grant work visas to upward of 5 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States. When the Feb. 27 deadline rolls around, the department will lose its funding and, due to an agreement made with Congress last year, the government could then be in danger of shutting down.

CNN reports House and Senate Republican leaders insist that they don’t want to see any government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security due to another immigration fight. This will make it unlikely that the GOP will get the 60 votes needed to push a bill that would take away funding for the president’s executive order. If he decides to move forward with his lawsuit against the president, Boehner would have to decide if he will be filing his own suit or joining the handful of states that have already elected to sue the president over his executive action.

ABC News notes that more staunch Republicans are unlikely to get behind a potential lawsuit, as they would take it as another example of the GOP failing to not be bullied by the White House and the Obama administration. After all, this isn’t the first time House Republicans have filed a lawsuit against the president. Last year’s legal action against Obama over the Affordable Care Act is currently locked in a court battle that has no real end in sight.