As a follow on to Joe's earlier post, I wonder whether Paul Clement, the Bush administration lawyer who agreed to John Boehner's request to defend the DOMA case, would be all high and mighty about defending segregation or anti-miscegenation laws.
"My thoughts about the merits of DOMA are as irrelevant as my views about the dozens of federal statutes that I defended as Solicitor General," he wrote in the 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 positions is what lawyers do."Wrong. Defending unpopular clients is what lawyers do. Defending hateful, bigoted, discriminatory laws is what segregationists do. We'll be posting more information in future posts this afternoon about the distinction between every person deserves representation and every position deserves representation.
Speaking of his new firm, Clement said:
"They put clients first and deliver results," he said in the statement. "Bancroft offers its clients premier talent, without all the baggage of a mega firm. We are shaking up the D.C. legal establishment.”Yes, all that pesky civil rights baggage. It must be nice to work for a firm where common decency isn't a concern. What a coincidence that it's a Republican firm.
I think Bancroft PLLC just bought itself a world of pain. Sure, they're small, but if they recruit at all on law school campuses, like most firms, I think they're going to face some real protests, not to mention going down in history alongside those who helped uphold segregation and anti-miscegenation laws. I also can't imagine that protests in front of their own offices, and the offices of their clients, wouldn't be extremely disconcerting. We'll see if those develop, I suspect they will.
