Zeus was buff.
One day! I key stroked my little screed on my hometown darling of a law firm taking on a little anti gay vibe and POW! BAM! they wash there hands of the whole mess. Sending their little Bushie lawyer out with the bath water. This was not a case for the oh so buttoned down, oak paneled King and Spalding, at all. ( and AND, like I said, that other little Atlanta company that does some business with K&S does NOT let controversy happen, EVER...)
Now this is not to say that poor- all -alone- in- a -big- bad -world Speaker John of Orange is not going to get his vigorous defense of his law... Former Solicitor General Paul Clement has left K&S, but he is taking his client with them, so it is the EXACT same lawyer , just with out the
Lets start with our good pal Andrew Sullivan who thinks this is just a horrible miscarriage of justice : " "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." - Andrew Sullivan, writing for the Daily Beast.
He is taking a much larger view of this that I think he should, and I am pretty darn sure that for King and Spalding this was a PURELY business decision. But lets go to his larger point and say that we do lose the high road if "we" dont let DOMA have its day in court. WHICH IT WILL GET.. in a big way, and we could easily lose. Can't some causes be above the law ? Yes, the most vile and disgusting criminal gets his day in court in the U.S.A., we have no KING handing out punishment, but this is not a person, this is an idea.... and IS it wrong for this law firm to just say, this idea is too vile ( or unconstitutional ) for us to handle. Let's use for example the most recent case with the godhatesfags folks. We covered it here, some guy spit of head gargoyle Shirley, and he did do it , lots of folks saw him, etc, and yet the jury found him not guilty BECAUSE Shirley Phelps herself is such a nasty nasty person... Jury nullification for sure, but sort of the same thing.... right ? ( and yes, OJ is an example of this as well, but it does not do my case any good, so we are leaving him out...) Doma will get its day in court WITH the full power and money of the United States House of Representatives, behing it, just not King and Spalding.
The anti Andy, always clean shaven, Hater-in-Charge, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins had this to say : ""Led by the so-called Human Rights Campaign, activists promised to target the firm until its attorneys dropped the case. Five days later, they did. Unable -- and unwilling -- to take the heat, King and Spalding took the cowardly way out. Once again we see how the activists who are trying to redefine marriage want to shut down any and all public debate. King & Spalding have proven that they are not advocates for the law -- but for a small but influential cabal that want to undermine policy and society." You know I instantly changed my face book stats to read " Proud Member of a small but influential cabal" as soon as I read this.
Even the GOP comes out in the voice of Rep. Dan Lungren, Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee ( what ever the heck that is) with : "King and Spalding’s cut and run approach is inexcusable and an insult to the legal profession. Less than one week after the contract was approved engaging the firm, they buckled under political pressure and bailed with little regard for their ethical and legal obligations."
From the HRC , not always a k+b favorite, but hitting the right tone here :" “King & Spalding has rightly chosen to put principle above politics in dropping its involvement in the defense of this discriminatory and patently unconstitutional law. We are pleased to see the firm has decided to stand on the right side of history and remain true to its core values. Speaker Boehner is likely to pursue continued defense of this odious law. However, law firms that value LGBT equality should remain committed to those values.”
Picking up on this idea, COULD the main Ivy Campuses bar King and Spalding from recruiting their law schools for the best and brightest IF they had kept this case? They all banned the military and ROTC over DADT... just a thought..
In the end, it is done. I am not really saying that I had anything at all do to with it, I AM SURE it is just a coincidence that one day after I wrote that they should dump this they did and that I do get many many many hits from Atlanta. I will say that everyone does know, that once you lose the Hamlet of Mendon, you have lost the rest of the America, and the writing was on the wall...
AJC COVERAGE OF THE STORY.
UPDATE
The Talking Points Memo website , breaks the dirty little secret that I said a few days ago, it was not the HRC or " gay rights groups" but Coca Cola that cause K and S to drop this READ HERE. ( the k+b has a good crystal ball when it comes to all things ATL related.... )
update update : This story is just taking off like a wild fire, We will be coming back to it.
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