Former Solicitor General Paul Clement was retained by the House of Representatives to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court after the attorney general indicated that the United States would not do so. On April 25, Clement’s firm, King & Spalding, moved to withdraw. In a public statement, the firm’s chair explained that “in reviewing this assignment further, I determined that the process for vetting this assignment was inadequate.” The inadequacy probably has to do with the demonstrators outside King & Spalding’s Atlanta headquarters and with threats of a national boycott.
Clement has resigned from the firm in protest, stating, “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 clients is what lawyers do … having undertaken the representation, I believe there is no honorable course for me but to complete it.” He will continue the representation at another firm.
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