In the wake of the Obama administration’s refusal to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the basis that it believes the law to be unconstitutional, House Republicans, not content to consider extending federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples, have taken up the fight.
In a contract posted by Politico, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives has agreed to pay King & Spalding, LLC, an Atlanta-based law firm, $520 per hour (up to $500,000) for their work defending DOMA. According to CBS, House Speaker John Boehner declared that House Republicans were left with “no choice” but to retain King & Spalding partner Paul Clement, a Bush-era U.S. solicitor-general, to continue to repress the rights of gays and lesbians. Boehner has further requested that some of your tax dollars be diverted from the Department of Justice to the House in order to fund the defense of DOMA.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign have criticized House Republicans for mounting a costly defense of a discriminatory law. “Not only are House Republican leaders defending the indefensible, they’ve brought in a high-priced attorney to deny federal recognition to loving, married couples,” Solmonese told CBS.
