Washington attorney Charles Cooper likely to get nod as U.S. solicitor general

[herding cats]

Reports indicate that President Donald Trump intends to nominate Charles Cooper, a well-liked and well-respected Washington lawyer who served in the Reagan administration, to serve as the U.S. solicitor general. Cooper is perhaps best known for his defense of California’s Proposition 8, which barred same-sex marriage in that state. By a vote of 5-4, the justices ruled that the proponents of the law did not have a legal right to defend the ban in court after state officials had declined to do so.


If nominated and confirmed, Cooper would bring a strong conservative pedigree to the job. He graduated first in his class from the University of Alabama Law School and then went on to serve as law clerk to then-Justice William H. Rehnquist. In 1981, he joined the Reagan administration by taking a job in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice; four years later, he became the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Since 1988, Cooper has worked as a lawyer in private practice, spending the last two decades as a partner in a law firm that he co-founded, and has argued before the Supreme Court seven times. But although Cooper has often represented conservative interests, he is generally not regarded as a conservative ideologue.

Cooper is a close friend of Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama lawmaker whom Trump has nominated to serve as attorney general, and helped to prepare Sessions for his confirmation hearings. Like Sessions, Cooper could prove to be a controversial pick. In addition to his role defending California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Cooper also signed a brief on behalf of the federal government supporting Bob Jones University in its challenge to the constitutionality of an Internal Revenue Service policy denying tax exemptions to religious institutions that discriminate based on race. The university had argued that its ban on interracial dating was based on its sincere religious beliefs, but the Supreme Court upheld the IRS policy, by a vote of 8-1. And in 1986, as the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Cooper signed an OLC opinion that argued that employers could reject job applicants with AIDS if they were concerned about contracting the disease.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/02/washington-attorney-charles-cooper-likely-get-nod-u-s-solicitor-general/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Wasn't Kellyanne Conway's husband the other contender for SG?

[herding cats]

2. Yes, he was on the list, too. nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. From Joe.My.God:

Protect Marriage Lawyer Who Defended Prop 8 At Supreme Court Likely To Be Named Solicitor General

February 9, 2017

....
One year after defending Prop 8, Cooper announced that he was thrilled to participate in his daughter’s same-sex marriage ceremony. Prop 8 plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier reacted:

“We were so moved to hear of the Cooper family’s constant love and support of their own daughter, even as the Perry case was in full swing and Mr. Cooper was spending his days planning Prop 8’s defense. Some may find this contrast between public and private jarring, but in our opinion, loving an LGBT child unequivocally is the single most important thing any parent can do. We are overjoyed for Ashley and her fiancée, and we wish them the very best.”