DOMA Defense Update-- HRC Under Fire for Pressuring Law Firm

When I last touched on Boehner's vow to defend DOMA no matter what the cost (to taxpayers), we learned that the House had hired the law firm King and Spalding at an estimated cost of $500k.  Since then, a couple key developments have taken place.

Perhaps the biggest is that the aforementioned law firm has dropped the case altogether and the Speaker has been forced to find other attorneys to represent the State's interest in the matter.  Why?  Because the HRC (and many other groups, my pals at GetEQUAL included) set their crosshairs on the firm and their clients, asking them to not further the cause of discrimination.

"Far from being abashed about this campaign, Fred Sainz, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, shared new details about it. He confirmed to me that his group did indeed contact King and Spalding clients to let them know that the group viewed the firm’s defense of DOMA as unacceptable.

"Sainz said his group did not ask any of the firm’s clients to drop the firm in retaliation for taking the case, as is being assumed by conservatives who are alleging an untoward pressure campaign. Rather, he said, his group informed the firm’s clients that taking the case was out of sync with King and Spalding’s commitment to diversity, which it proudly advertises on its Web site.

"'King and Spalding’s clients are listed on its web site, so we did what you would expect us to do,' Sainz told me. 'We are an advocacy firm that is dedicated to improving the lives of gays and lesbians. It is incumbent on us to launch a full-throated educational campaign so firms know that these kinds of engagements will reflect on the way your clients and lawschool recruits think of your firm.'"

It looks like one of King and Spalding's major clients, Coca-cola, was the one to directly intervene in the matter when approached by the HRC.

"Sources with knowledge of the backlash confirm that one of King & Spalding's top clients, Coca Cola, also based in Atlanta, directly intervened to press the firm to extricate itself from the case.

"A Coca Cola spokesman declined to comment on or off the record for this story, but pointed TPM to the company's long public history of support for equality and diversity."

Some are not happy about HRC's interference in the matter, with right-wing supporters attacking HRC's involvement as un-American, while some lefty bloggers are criticizing the HRC for being unliberal:

"To put pressure on lawyers defending clients or laws because lobby groups don't like them is deeply illiberal. It remains disgusting, for example, that rightwing groups targeted lawyers defending terror suspects and Gitmo prisoners. When the far right did this, it was despicable. Now that the left is doing it, it remains just as despicable.

"Memo to the gay rights leadership: the ends do not justify the means. Let DOMA have the most robust defense it can possibly muster and let us argue just as passionately for its unconstitutionality. When civil rights groups bully, they lose the moral high-ground. When you have men like David Brock leading the charge - and there are no means he has ever eschewed to achieve his ends - the danger is that we prove the far right's point. We must be better than them."

Okay, we all know I'm no big fan of the Human Rights Campaign.  I think they are essentially a bunch of Democrat apologists who spend more time fundraising than actually assisting the process of real change.  I think their abandonment of the trans community is despicable.  However, actions like this?  Where they use their corporate and political clout to wage war against the religious right's insistence that gay Americans are second-class?  Hell yeah, you go HRC!

Because here's the thing:  This isn't a criminal trial.  If it were a criminal trial and we were bullying people into not representing defendants who could be sent to prison for crimes they may not have committed, this would be inexcusable.  But it's not.  This is a civil case, being paid for by American tax dollars in defense of a policy the majority of Americans now do not want.  DOMA doesn't have the right to an attorney in civil cases.

If we can weaken the public perception of the DOMA defense by establishing a media narrative showing that the policy is, in essence, indefensible?  That's not only our right as advocates for the gay community, that's our prerogative and our responsibility.

Congratulations, HRC.  You've shown the LGBT community what you're good for.

[Towleroad]

Boehner Ignores What America Wants, Spends Your Money Defending Doma

This is exceptionally stupid, especially since now it seems every poll is indicating that Americans just want DOMA to die.

House Majority Speaker John Boehner has already tasked the DoJ with funding his personal crusade to discriminate against the gays-- after Barry O. issued the executive order stating that the administration would no longer defend the draconian law, Rep. Boehner leapt into action and said "Well, gol' durnit!  I will!"

Well, the good folks over at Think Progress have gotten a hold of the contract with the law firm retained for the case and they are charging taxpayers a whopping $520/hr to take the case.

"2. The General Counsel agrees to pay Contractor for all contractual services a sum not to exceed $500,000.00. … Furthermore, it is understood and agreed that should the $500,000 cap be reached before the Litigation is complete, and if the cap has not then been raised by written agreement…contractor shall not be obligated to continue providing legal services under this Agreement.

"3. The General Counsel agress to pay Contractor at a blended rate of $520.00 per hour for all reasonable attorney time expended in connection with the Litigation, and at 75 percent of the Contractor’s usual and customary rates for all reasonable non-attorney time…and to reimburse Contractor for all reasonable expenses incurred by the Contractor in connection with the Litigation[.]"

Your taxpayer dollars at work, guys!  Yet another misappropriation of government funds during the worst recession in decades. 

[Think Progress]

House Speaker Boehner Is Both Incorrect AND Whiny

Boehner is continuing his ride on the waaaaaaambulance by insisting that Miz Barry O is refusing to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act and oh, girl, she wrong fo' dat.

"BOEHNER: DOMA is the law of the land. It passed overwhelming in both the House and the Senate.  And I think it’s outrageous for the president to say, Well, we’re not going to enforce it. It’s the law of the land.  It’s the job of the Justice Department to defend the work of our government. And I just think it’s outrageous. We’re looking at our options, what’s available to us to intervene. The short — the long and short of this is that we are going to intervene. The question is how do we do it.

VAN SUSTEREN: Have you had any conversations with the executive branch, with the attorney general or the president about that?

BOEHNER: No."

Well, John, Maybe you SHOULD have a conversation with the executive branch-- or the AG-- or Miz Barry O herself.   Then you would get these simple facts which you seem to be lacking:

1.  Obama's administration is DEFINITELY still enforcing DOMA.  It is a gross overstatement and outright lie to keep insisting he is not.  He is merely passing on defending an indefensible law in court.

2.  Nowhere does it say that the President must defend this law.  Are you kidding?  There are unenforced laws on the books in every State in the Union.  I mean, here in Oregon, it is still illegal for women to sit at a bar.  In upstate New York, there's a small town where it is illegal for an automobile to impersonate a wolf.  Since DOMA is clearly just as ridiculous as these antiquated and draconian measures, he is doing the same thing that police officers do all over the country, every day-- ignoring an embarrassing law that should really go away anyway.

[ThinkProgress]