CoreReport.com 04/26/11 – DOMA Updates: CitizenLink.com – The bottom line is that former Solicitor General Paul Clement will continue to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) — at a new law firm.
Just a week after the U.S. House of Representatives selected Clement and his firm, King & Spalding, to defend DOMA against multiple challenges in federal court, his law firm dumped the case Monday, saying “the process used for vetting this engagement was inadequate.”
Clement resigned and was quickly hired by Bancroft PLLC, a small firm in Washington, D.C., where he will continue to defend DOMA.
“I take this step not because of strongly held views about this statute,” Clement wrote in his resignation letter. “Instead, I resign out of the firmly-held belief that a representation should not be abandoned because the client’s legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters. Defending unpopular decisions is what lawyers do.”
DOMA is being challenged in at least 10 court cases, and President Obama has ordered his Department of Justice to stop defending it.
