News

Head Lawyers in Prop 8 and DOMA Cases Not in Court Wednesday

Ted Olson and Paul Clement were both absent when the rulings were handed down.
Written by | Published on

Two people were conspicuously absent from the crowd at the Supreme Court this morning:
head lawyers in the Prop 8 and DOMA cases,
Ted Olson and
Paul Clement.

Olson, a GOP stalwart, became an unlikely leading advocate for same-sex marriage when
he took the case with co-counsel
David Boies to get California’s same-sex marriage ban thrown out. He waited at the Supreme Court
both Monday and Tuesday this week for the justices to decide the Prop 8 case. But
today, when they finally handed down their ruling, he wasn’t there.

Clement defended the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in the high
court’s other big same-sex marriage case. He was also missing from the court today—maybe
for the best, since the court overturned the law.

So where were these two power lawyers? They’re in
Philadelphia, where they’re facing
off with each other at the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals in
a case about sports

betting.

Talk about bad timing.

Get Washingtonian’s Daily DC Updates (Not Just Another Political News Roundup)

Get Started
More:
Questions or comments? You can reach us on Twitter, via e-mail, or by contacting the author directly:
Senior Editor

Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 as a staff writer, and became a senior editor in 2014. She was previously a reporter for Legal Times and the National Law Journal. She has recently written about the Marriott family’s civil war and the 50-year rebirth of 14th Street, and reported the definitive oral history of the Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt case. She lives in Northeast DC with her husband, two dogs, and two cats.