Next Thursday—yes, St. Patrick’s Day—I will be taking part in a lunchtime discussion of the question, “Does the President Have a Duty to Defend DOMA?” My fellow discussant is law professor (and Volokh Conspiracy blogger) Ilya Somin, and law professor Neomi Rao has kindly agreed to moderate the discussion. The free event is sponsored by the Capitol Hill Federalist Society and will include lunch (but don’t expect green beer). To RSVP, or for more info, see here.

In this Weekly Standard essay from several months ago, I explored the general question of when a president may decline to defend a federal law. With competing demands on my time and lots of strong commentary from others—including this essay by Matt Franck—I’ve only very briefly addressed President Obama’s specific decision not to defend (or, rather, not to continue to pretend to defend) DOMA.