James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
12:39 P.M. EDT
MR. EARNEST: Two quick announcements at the top before we go to your questions. They’re both scheduling announcements, actually. The first is, at 3:00 p.m. today the President will host a swearing-in ceremony for the new director of the United States Secret Service, Julia Pierson. That will be in the Oval Office, and we’ve arranged for a pool to be there to witness it. So that should be pretty good.
The second thing is about tomorrow. Tomorrow, the President will hold an event here at the White House where he will stand with mothers who want Congress to take action on common-sense measures to protect children from gun violence. The event will take place in the East Room. And in addition to the mothers on stage with the President, there will be law enforcement officials, victims of gun violence, and other stakeholders. So that will be tomorrow. I don’t know the exact time, but we’ll have more on that on the guidance tonight. So, yes, here in the East Room in the White House.
With that, Julie, I’ll let you get us started.
Q Thank you. Just a couple things on DOMA. Did the President get any update from the Solicitor General following the oral arguments today? And was there anyone from the White House who was there to witness the arguments, like yesterday?
MR. EARNEST: It is my understanding that the President has been kept apprised of the arguments made at the Supreme Court on these issues, both through reading the coverage of you and your colleagues but also based on briefings that he’s gotten from his legal staff here at the White House.
It’s also my understanding that the White House officials who attended yesterday are the White House officials also attended today. So that was Valerie Jarrett, Kathy Ruemmler, the Counsel of the White House, and Kathleen Hartnett, who’s an associate counsel here at the White House.
Q There seemed to be, in sort of the initial reading of the justices’ questions, a sense that they were also questioning the constitutionality of DOMA. Did the President, in the short period of time that’s passed since it was wrapped up, have any reaction to the proceedings today?
MR. EARNEST: I haven’t heard from him about his reaction to the proceedings today. I know that going into the proceedings that he had full confidence in his team at the Justice Department and others who were responsible for preparing the arguments, and had total confidence in the people who were prepared to walk in there and deliver them. But in terms of his reaction for how it played out, I didn’t get one.
Q We’re seeing a little bit more from the President, at least publicly this week, on immigration reform — the interviews today, the event on Monday. …read more
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