Justice Dept. lawyer who defended Obamacare at Supreme Court leaving

WASHINGTON (AP) - The top Justice Department official who defended the president's health care law at the Supreme Court is leaving his job. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. is ending his five-year tenure as the administration's chief lawyer at the high court, President Barack Obama said in a statement last Thursday. "Thanks to his efforts, 20 million more Americans now know the security of quality, affordable health care," Obama said. Verrilli, 58, made the principal argument in defense of the health law against a major challenge in 2012 and an attack on subsidies for low-income Americans last year. The 2012 case took place in the midst of Obama's re-election campaign, with the signature domestic achievement of his first term essentially on trial at the Supreme Court. Among his 49 Supreme Court arguments were support for same-sex marriage and preservation of a key voting rights provision. The court ruled for same-sex marriage last year and struck down the voting rights provision in 2013. Verrilli's Supreme Court experience began more than 30 years ago, when he served as a law clerk to Justice William Brennan. In 1994, as special counsel to President Bill Clinton, he assisted in the confirmation process for Stephen Breyer, who remains on the high court. In private practice, Verrilli's major Supreme Court victories included his representation of motion picture studios and music recording companies in a legal challenge to the Grokster file-sharing service and of a death-row inmate whose previous lawyers had failed to turn up evidence of horrific childhood abuse at the hands of the inmate's mother and foster family members. Verrilli will step down in late June. Deputy Solicitor General Ian Gershengorn will serve as acting solicitor general. Published: Mon, Jun 06, 2016