Law firm King & Spalding announced Monday it will not defend the Defense of Marriage Act on behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives. Afterward, Paul Clement, the partner who had taken the case, announced he intends to defend the law with another firm.

In reaction to the news that the law firm King & Spalding has withdrawn from representing House leadership in cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Legal Director Jon Davidson.

(Burlington,VT April 22, 2011) -As just reported in the Rutland Herald (pay site), there has been an arrest in the custody case involving former civil union partners Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller, and their daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins. Lisa did not comply with a court order to transfer custody of Isabella to Janet on January 1, 2010.

"Members of the LGBT legal community are seriously considering breaking ties with the firm King & Spalding in light of this week's news that one of its partners, former Bush Solicitor General Paul Clement, has signed on to defend the federal ban on same-sex marriage on behalf of House Republicans.

"Jon Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal, the nation's oldest and largest legal organization working for LGBT equality, had one word on the firm's decision to take the case: 'Depressing.'

"All of King & Spalding's employees – lawyers and non-lawyers – are barred from advocating for the Respect for Marriage Act – the bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act – in the 112th Congress, according to the terms of the contract to defend DOMA that King & Spalding partner Paul Clement signed on the firm's behalf on April 14.

Fifteen years ago we successfully represented Jamie Nabozny after he endured years of bullying and harassment at school. The ruling from the court in his case made clear for the first time that the Constitution protects gay students from harassment and abuse just as much as it protects other kids. We at Lambda Legal are very proud of that; the case spoke volumes then, and still does.

But there's too long a line of schools cases following Jamie's. Too many schools around the country still allow the abuse of LGBT students to such a degree that Lambda Legal and our sister organizations can predict the fact patterns. There are often three common elements to the lawsuits we bring on behalf of students who experience anti-LGBT bullying, and we can do something to change all of them.

(New York, April 15, 2011)—Yesterday, the Delaware House of Representatives voted 26-15 to approve a civil unions bill that will provide same-sex couples who enter into such civil unions the same rights, protections and obligations now granted in Delaware to married couples. The Senate had approved the measure earlier, and the Governor has announced he will sign the bill into law. It will go into effect on January 1, 2012.

Lambda Legal's national Marriage Project Director Camilla Taylor issued the following statement:

"It was a story that seemed right out of the 1980s: When Dr. Robert Franke was evicted in 2009 from a Little Rock, Ark., assisted-living facility just for having HIV, it felt like the old days—before the HIV civil-rights battles, before the public health campaigns, before all the medical breakthroughs. Thirty years into the epidemic, how could the most basic information about the virus's transmission have eluded a retirement community promising 'round-the-clock care'? How was it possible that people were still being kicked into the street for their HIV status?

Today, in recognition of the National Day of Silence, Lambda Legal issued the following statement by Deputy Legal Director Hayley Gorenberg:

"It's been 15 years since the first Day of Silence, but after several tragic suicides by young LGBT people last fall, the media finally began to shine a light on LGBT youth who are bullied and harassed in schools.

Today Lambda Legal and Morrison & Foerster LLP filed an amended complaint challenging the constitutionality of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in its case representing Karen Golinski, a federal court employee denied spousal health benefits for her wife.