My arguement stems from the fact that if he flips his cards and I see them, he'd be able to see my reaction and have the extra advantage of seeing if I reacted and gave away a tell .
I believe I read somewhere that, exactly for the reason you stated above, this can be a good strategic move. I can't cite a better source than the previous posters have, but I believe the move is legal, and his hand is not declared dead.

I wouldn't think you'd want to do that much in a friendly home game, and I couldn't imagine it would be very popular to make it worthwhile in a low stakes game either.