Career Takes New College Alumna to Supreme Court

When Mollie Lee got her New College degree in anthropology and biology in 1999, she expected it might take her back to field work in the rainforest. Instead, it took her to the U.S. Supreme Court as an attorney with a front-row seat to a landmark gay marriage case.
Lee was part of the team from the San Francisco City Attorney’s office that fought for the rights of same-sex couples for nearly a decade. They were rewarded June 26 with a ruling that in effect legalized gay marriage in California.
She joined the team midway through the fight, but in time for a crucial stage: The challenge in federal court to California’s Proposition 8, which had banned gay marriage in the state.
They won a major battle in August 2010, when U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the voter initiative violated the U.S. Constitution. That triggered an appeal and legal maneuvering that eventually sent the case to the U.S. Supreme Court in March. Lee and her colleagues traveled to Washington for the oral arguments.
“It was awe-inspiring to be in the highest court in the land and hear arguments on a case I’d been on since the beginning,” she said
It started with her arrival that morning, seeing crowds of people outside, many of whom had camped out all night in the snow, hoping for a seat or simply wanting to be on hand for the historic case.
Inside the court, she said, it was a study in contrasts. “On the one hand, it’s very solemn, with the high ceilings and the justices in their huge chairs. And yet they seemed very much like real people, genuinely wrestling with the issue. They are nine people who are doing their best.”
Her journey to that day began in many ways at New College, where Lee studied anthropology and biology with her advisor Prof. Anthony Andrews, and did field work in Guyana. She planned to be an ethnobotanist, researching medicinal plants and isolating compounds that would cure disease.
She moved on to graduate school at the University of Georgia, where her research led her to realize there were complex intellectual property issues involved in the field – and realized she found those issues interesting.
She never studied law at New College, but after getting her master’s degree in anthropology, she moved to San Francisco, worked for the League of Women Voters, and applied to Yale Law School.
“I sent in the whole packet of my written evaluations,” she said. “I was a little worried about applying to law school, with no letter grades, but one of the great delights was that it didn’t matter,” she said. In fact, she believes it helped. Yale Law doesn’t give letter grades, and most classes are seminars with only a few students – much like her alma mater.
“One the one hand, I felt very odd there, my first experience in the Ivy League. But the academic experience made me feel very much at home,” she said. Her New College experience of delving into complex issues and her training in critical thinking were keys to succeeding in law school, she says.
After graduating in 2006, she returned to San Francisco, where her mother lived, and clerked for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She moved on to a job defending death penalty cases, work she loved but found difficult.
In June 2008 moved to an opening with the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office specializing in election law, building on her experience with the League of Women Voters. When the City Attorney Dennis Herrera challenged Proposition 8, she joined the team working on what became known as the Perry case.
Through fall and winter 2009, Lee’s work included preparing witnesses including economists from the city and from University of Massachusetts, and “factual” witnesses like Ryan Kendall, a young man who had been subjected to conversion therapy.
The January 2010 trial resulted in the verdict they wanted: It said Proposition 8 denied same-sex couples equal protection and violated their fundamental right to marry. The trial court entered a detailed order saying that in terms of marriage, same-sex couples are the same as opposite-sex couples in every way that matters.
Predictably, Proposition 8 supporters appealed and the case went to the Ninth Circuit. Lee worked on the Ninth Circuit briefing and helped prepare attorneys for oral argument.
In February 2012, a three-judge panel of that court granted same-sex marriage supporters a narrowly defined, 2-1 victory. That led to the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Despite the big-name attorneys on the case, the San Francisco team’s efforts gained notice. The New York Times featured them in a front-page story and photo on March 19, with lead attorney Olson praising the “superb” quality of the team’s work.
“My mother was very excited,” she said, “And I got a nice outpouring of support from New College alums, a lot of Facebook posts and shoutouts.”
After the oral arguments, both the San Francisco team and many observers predicted a victory, again on narrow grounds. In an April interview, Lee said she expected the court would push the issue back to the states. She noted Justice Anthony Kennedy’s remarks, asking why the Court took up the case in the first place, and questions from other justices about whether the Proposition 8 opponents had standing to appeal.
That type of result would leave either the Ninth Circuit ruling or the trial court ruling in place – “and we won in both of those courts,” she said.
And on June 26, that’s just what happened. Lee and her colleagues came in to the office early to be ready for the announcements from the East Coast. They crowded around a computer scanning SCOTUSblog, a popular website for legal issues coverage.
“We were there huddled around the screen,” she said. And as the decision appeared on the screen, there was a lot of yelling, rushing to print copies and see the actual ruling, and start writing their own analyses of the decision.
While the Supreme Court decision was not the definitive answer on same-sex marriages many had hoped for, Lee believes it’s just a matter of time.
“Once you start thinking about why you’re treating a group of people differently, you realize that there’s no good reason for it,” she said. “I’m very confident that in a matter of decades it will be resolved nationally. I hope it’s sooner.”