U.S. House of Representatives General Counsel Kerry Kirchner was quoted today as saying that DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act already found by federal judges to be unconstitutional, would “not be inexpensive” to defend, according to a source, and reported by TPM’s Brian Beutler.
House Republican Leader Eric Cantor issued a statement that, in part, authorizes — without a cap of any sort on cost — the House General Counsel to “retain counsel to conduct such litigation on behalf of BLAG (the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group.)
Read: “DOMA: House Republicans Win BLAG Vote, Will Defend Law In Court“
The statement, copied below, was widely distributed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is opposed to defending the 1996 law in court.
TPM also reports, “Mr. Kirchner noted that there are currently at least 10 cases and he does not have the in-house resources to deal with that many cases as he has a staff of five with one lawyer currently on maternity leave.
“Mr. Kirchner said he believed the House intervention in the DOMA case would take a minimum of 18 months. Clearly, this could go on for years before SCOTUS hears one of these cases.
“Mr. Kirchner also laid out that the Reagan Administration chose to no longer defend 5 laws in the 1980s. Clearly, the Republicans were fine with a Republican President choosing not to defend statutes passed by the Congress.”