Obama man wrote anti-gay brief

[FreeState]

Obama man wrote anti-gay brief
by John Aravosis (DC) on 6/12/2009 05:29:00 PM

From Chris Geidner at Law Dork:

Tony West, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, is on the brief. He's from Oakland, California, and is a former prosecutor who then, while an attorney at Morrison & Foerster, defended John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban." He also was the co-chairman of Obama's fundraising committee. This is an Obama person. And his name is on this brief.


http://www.americablog.com/2009/06/obama-man-wrote-anti-gay-brief.html

[gratuitous]

1. This will require an explanation

Because looking over the brief, the arguments are so odious, it's baffling to me how it could have come out of the Obama administration, and I'm quite anxious to hear the explanation. The only possible out I can see is that they submitted a brief so heinous and offensive that it will cause the panel to rule against the government. Which is patent bullshit.

On a totally unrelated note, Mr. West worked at Morrison & Foerster, a firm that is tangentially involved in a case our office is working on. The e-mail domain for people there is @mofo.com, which I found to be rather a giggle.

[EFerrari]

3. LOL

Thanks.

[monmouth]

7. Oh my......LOL. So many jokes, so little time.....n/t

[FreeState]

2. Updates with link to original source (Law Dork)

http://lawdork.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/obamas-doj-did-not-have-to-go-this-far/

Even if one argues, as I often have, that a government lawyer — from the Department of Justice to state attorneys general — must defend even those laws with which one disagrees*, such a lawyer needn’t overstate his or her case. The government lawyer defending a statute with which she disagrees needn’t add gratuitous demeaning statements into the legal brief she files.

Unlike the Obama Administration’s brief filed in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell case turned away by the Supreme Court this week, last night’s filing in Smelt v. United States goes too far. It’s offensive, it’s dismissive, it’s demeaning and — most importantly — it’s unnecessary. Even if one accepts that DOJ should have filed a brief opposing this case (and the facts do suggest some legitimate questions about standing), the gratuitous language used throughout the filing goes much further than was necessary to make its case.

[Ms. Toad]

4. Thank you.

I've been trying to say that all afternoon, but you said it much more eloquently.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mmonk]

6. Darn, almost got that troll poster.

The mods are fast this evening. I had already hit the reply.;-)

[Patsy Stone]

8. Your link leads to a page that doesn't exist any more.

However, I did find this link from Aravosis: http://www.americablog.com/2009/06/mormon-bush-holdover-filed-anti-gay.html

Mormon Bush holdover filed anti-gay DOMA brief today

by John Aravosis (DC) on 6/12/2009 08:46:00 PM

Now we have a big problem. Andrew Sullivan discovered that one of the three Obama Justice Department attorneys who wrote and filed the anti-gay DOMA brief last night is W. Scott Simpson, a Mormon Bush holdover who was awarded by Alberto Gonzales for his defense of the Partial Birth Abortion act. Funny, on first reading the brief this morning, I wrote the following:

It's pretty despicable, and gratuitously homophobic. It reads as if it were written by one of George Bush's top political appointees.

And it was! At least a Bush employee. And a Mormon to boot.

No wonder the brief was so filled with hate and bigoted religious right talking points, such as comparing gay marriage to incest and pederasty. Obama let a Mormon Bush Justice Dept. employee create his public position on DOMA with the courts. This is really beyond the pale. I can't wait until Obama let's W. Scott Simpson write the brief in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade.

And this update from the LawDork post: http://lawdork.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/obamas-doj-did-not-have-to-go-this-far/

UPDATE: Tony West, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, is the senior person on the brief. He's from Oakland, California, and is a former prosecutor who then, while an attorney at Morrison & Foerster, defended John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban." He also was the co-chairman of Obama's fundraising committee. This is an Obama person. And his name is on this brief.

Andrew Sullivan points out that one of the people on the brief, the man who signed it, is "W. Scott Simpson, a Bush administration holdover, and devout Mormon." He also notes that Simpson "was given an award by Alberto Gonzales for his defense of the Partial Birth Abortion Act."

The final DOJ name on the brief, James J. Gilligan, goes all the way back to the Ashcroft DOJ, per this filing in 2003.

---

So, at the very least, two of the three were Bush's men. Not that it makes this okay. It doesn't, AT ALL! But, for the record, Aravosis apparently pulled that post from 5:29 p.m. yesterday for whatever reason.