Seneca County hires former acting attorney general in Bush administration to handle Cayuga Nation case

Seneca County has hired a Washington D.C.-area lawyer for a possible Supreme Court case.

Paul Clement, former U.S. Attorney General and Solicitor General will file a petition with the Supreme Court of the United States, asking it to hear an appeal of lower-court rulings in favor of the Cayuga Nation in a tax-foreclosure case that started in 2013.

Clement has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court, including challenges to former President George W. Bush’s administration and its conduct in the war on terrorism.

In recent years, he successfully defended a $1.2 billion jury verdict for clients in a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals case, according to the Finger Lakes Times. The state of New York has agreed to pay the county’s legal costs in matters related to the Cayuga Nation.