Kagan, Clement went to a Green Day concert together

Published March 28, 2012 4:00am ET



He’s been referred to as a GOP icon and wunderkind, but what was Paul Clement — the lawyer challenging Obamacare before the Supreme Court this week — doing back in the summer of 2010? Why attending a Green Day concert with Elena Kagan, of course.

This fun fact came to light when New York Magazine ran a lengthy profile on Clement this week, who has taken up some of the most polarizing court cases in recent history. Besides this week’s Obamacare case, he’ll be defending the Defense of Marriage Act for John Boehner and House Republicans, defending Arizona’s immigration law and defending South Carolina’s Voter Identification law, which President Obama‘s Department of Justice is against.

Writer Jason Zengerle brought up Kagan and Clement’s rock out session to point out Clement’s “personal ease” in front of the justices. The piece also noted how well respected Clement is within the legal community, despite picking up all those controversial cases. “[While] he’s undoubtedly a conservative and a Republican, he has managed to avoid this fate,” Zengerle wrote “His persona is rarely conflated with the case he’s arguing.”