United States Solicitor General

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United States Solicitor General

The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to argue for the Government of the United States in front of the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
whenever the government is party to a case. Currently, the Acting Solicitor General is long-time deputy Edwin Kneedler

Edwin Kneedler

Edwin S. Kneedler is the Acting United States Solicitor General....
. Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan is Dean of Harvard Law School and Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law at Harvard University. She was previously a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School....
is President Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
's designate to fill the position permanently, the first woman to hold the office.

The Solicitor General advocates a legal position based upon the President's political position.

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Encyclopedia

The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to argue for the Government of the United States in front of the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

Edwin Kneedler

Edwin S. Kneedler is the Acting United States Solicitor General....
. Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan

Barack Obama

Amicus curiae

Amicus curiae or amicus curi? is a legal Latin phrase, literally translated as "friend of the court", that refers to someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of the case to assist the court in deciding a matter before it....
briefs in virtually every case of significance to the federal government, regardless of whether the government is directly involved.

Significance

The Solicitor General, who has offices in the Supreme Court Building

United States Supreme Court building

The Supreme Court building is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is situated in Washington, D.C. at 1 First Street NE, on the block immediately east of the United States Capitol....
as well as the Department of Justice Headquarters

Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building

The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building is the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Department of Justice.The building is located at 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, on a trapezoidal lot on the City block bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue to the north, Constitution Avenue to the south, 9th Street to the east, and 10th Stree...
, has been called the "10th justice" due to the relationship of mutual respect that inevitably develops between the justices and the Solicitor General (and their respective staffs of clerks and deputies). As the most frequent advocate before the Court, the Solicitor General generally argues dozens of times each term, whereas even experienced private Supreme Court litigators may make fewer than ten appearances in their careers. As a result, the Solicitor General tends to remain particularly comfortable during oral arguments that other advocates would find intimidating. Furthermore, when the Solicitor General's office endorses a petition for certiorari

Certiorari

Certiorari is a legal term in Roman law, English law, and Law of the United States law referring to a type of writ seeking judicial review. Certiorari is the present tense passive voice infinitive of Latin certiorare, ....
, review is frequently granted, which is remarkable given that only 75–125 of the over 7,500 petitions submitted each term are granted review by the Court.

Other than the justices themselves, the Solicitor General is considered among the most influential and knowledgeable members of the legal community with regard to the Supreme Court and constitutional law. Due to the high degree of legal ability and expertise required for this important position, the Office of the Solicitor General is generally considered to be the highest office for a practicing lawyer in the United States, as opposed to the Office of the Attorney General

United States Attorney General

The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the government of the United States....
, which while always held by a lawyer, is more of an administrative, political office. Not surprisingly, many who have worked as or for the Solicitor General have later been appointed to the Supreme Court.

Within the Justice Department, the Solicitor General exterts significant influence on all appeals brought by the department. Whenenever the DOJ wins at the trial stage and the losing party appeals, the concerned divison of the DOJ responds automatically and proceeds to defend the ruling in the appelate process. However, if the DOJ is the losing party at the trial stage, an appeal can only be brough with the permission of the Solitior General. For example, should the tort divsion lose a jury trial in federal district court, that ruling cannot be appealed by the Appelate Office without the approval of the Solicitor General.

Traditions

Several traditions have developed since the Office of Solicitor General was established in 1870. Most obviously to spectators at oral argument before the Court, the Solicitor General and his or her deputies traditionally appear in formal morning coats. More significantly, the Solicitor General is permitted to "lodge" in the appellate record new evidence that would ordinarily not be considered by the justices. Another tradition, possibly unique to the United States, is the Solicitor General's right and practice of confession of judgment

Confession of judgment

Confession of judgment, in law, is a List of legal topics with two meanings....
: the Solicitor General can simply drop a case if he considers the government's prior official position to be unjust, even if the government has already won in lower court.

Solicitors General since 1870

Solicitor General	Date of Service	Appointing President
Benjamin H. Bristow	October 1870–November 1872	Ulysses Grant
Samuel F. Phillips Samuel F. Phillips Samuel Field Phillips was a civil rights pioneer, lawyer, politician, and United States Solicitor General . He took part in the landmark civil rights case, Plessy v....	November 1872–May 1885	Ulysses Grant
John Goode John Goode John Goode, Jr. was a prominent Virginia Democratic Party politician who served in the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War and then was a three-term post-bellum United States Congressman, as well as the acting Solicitor General of the United States.... (Acting)	May 1885–August 1886	Grover Cleveland Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland was both the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents....
George A. Jenks George A. Jenks George A. Jenks was a politician from Pennsylvania and Solicitor General of the United States.Jenks was born in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on March 25, 1836....	July 1886–May 1889
Orlow W. Chapman Orlow W. Chapman Orlow W. Chapman was born in 1832, in Ellington, Connecticut, though he made his life?s work and home in New York. While in Ellington, Chapman received his primary education in a local academy....	May 1889–January 1890	Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving one term from 1889 to 1893. Harrison was born in North Bend, Ohio, and at age 21 moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he became a prominent state politician....
William Howard Taft William Howard Taft William Howard Taft was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, the tenth Chief Justice of the United States, a leader of the progressive conservative wing of the History of the United States Republican Party in the early 20th century, a pioneer in international arbitration and staunch advocate of world pe...	February 1890–March 1892
Charles H. Aldrich Charles H. Aldrich Charles H. Aldrich was U.S. Solicitor General.He attended the University of Michigan and received his A.B. in 1875. The University also awarded Charles an honorary masters in 1893....	March 1892–May 1893
Lawrence Maxwell, Jr. Lawrence Maxwell, Jr. Lawrence Maxwell Jr. was born to parents Lawrence and Alison on May 4 1853 in Glasgow, Scotland.After immigrating to America, Maxwell graduated from the University of Michigan in 1874....	April 1893–January 1895	Grover Cleveland Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland was both the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents....
Holmes Conrad Holmes Conrad Holmes Conrad was a politician, lawyer and military officer.Conrad was born in Winchester, Virginia. He was the son of Robert Young Conrad, a prominent lawyer of Winchester, and state attorney general from 1857 to 1862; his mother was Elizabeth Whiting, daughter of Burr Powell....	February 1895–July 1897
John K. Richards John K. Richards John K. Richards , jurist, son of Samuel and Sarah Richards, was born in Ironton, Ohio, Lawrence County, Ohio, Ohio. Having received his early education in the schools of his native town, John Richards graduated from Swarthmore College with the degree of A.B....	July 1897–March 1903	William McKinley William McKinley William McKinley, Jr. was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected....
Henry M. Hoyt	February 1903–March 1909	Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt , also known as T.R., and to the public as Teddy, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
Lloyd Wheaton Bowers Lloyd Wheaton Bowers Lloyd Wheaton Bowers was born March 9 1859, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Dwight and Martha Wheaton Bowers. On both sides his ancestors were Puritans who had settled in New England more than two centuries before his birth....	April 1909–September 1910	William Taft
Frederick W. Lehmann	December 1910–July 1912
William Marshall Bullitt	July 1912–March 1913
John W. Davis John W. Davis John William Davis was an Politics of the United States, diplomat and lawyer. He served as an United States Representative from West Virginia , then as Solicitor General of the United States and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Woodrow Wilson....	August 1913–November 1918	Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. A devout Presbyterianism and leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913....
Alexander C. King Alexander C. King Alexander Campbell King was born on December 7, 1856 in Charleston, South Carolina to J. Gadsden and Caroline Clifford . At the age of nineteen, King was admitted to the South Carolina Bar although he had not finished college....	November 1918–May 1920
William L. Frierson William L. Frierson William Little Frierson was an United States lawyer, judge, and politician. During his career he served as the United States Solicitor General , United States Assistant Attorney General , and mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee ....	June 1920–June 1921
James M. Beck James M. Beck James Montgomery Beck , was an American lawyer and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Republican Party , who served as Solicitor General of the United States and United States House of Representatives....	June 1921–June 1925	Warren Harding
William D. Mitchell William D. Mitchell William DeWitt Mitchell was appointed to the position of U.S. Solicitor General by Calvin Coolidge in June 5, 1925, which he held until he was appointed to the position of U.S....	June 1925–March 1929	Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . A Republican Party lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state....
Charles Evans Hughes, Jr	May 1929–April 1930	Herbert Hoover Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . Besides his political career, Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author....
Thomas D. Thacher Thomas D. Thacher Thomas Day Thacher was a lawyer and judge in New York City.Thacher was born in Tenafly, New Jersey and was the oldest of four children of Thomas Thacher, a prominent New York lawyer, and Sarah McCulloh Thacher....	March 1930–May 1933
James Crawford Biggs James Crawford Biggs James Crawford Biggs was born in Oxford, North Carolina, on August 29 1872, to William and Elizabeth Arlington Biggs. Biggs was a student at the Horner Military School in Oxford from 1883-1887 before attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....	May 1933–March 1935	Franklin Roosevelt
Stanley Reed Stanley Forman Reed Stanley Forman Reed was a noted United States attorney who served as United States Solicitor General from 1935 to 1938 and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1938 to 1957....	March 1935–January 1938
Robert H. Jackson Robert H. Jackson Robert Houghwout Jackson was United States Attorney General and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of the Supreme Court of the United States ....	March 1938–January 1940
Francis Biddle Francis Biddle Francis Beverley Biddle was an United States lawyer and judge who was United States Attorney General during World War II and who served as the primary American judge during the postwar Nuremberg trials....	January 1940–September 1941
Charles H. Fahy Charles H. Fahy Charles Fahy served as Solicitor General of the United States and later as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit....	November 1941–September 1945
J. Howard McGrath J. Howard McGrath James Howard McGrath was an United States and Lawyer from the U.S. state of Rhode Island.McGrath, a United States Democratic Party, served as U.S....	October 1945–October 1946	Harry Truman
Philip B. Perlman	July 1947–August 1952
Walter J. Cummings, Jr. Walter J. Cummings, Jr. Walter Joseph Cummings Jr. was a United States Solicitor General and a federal judge.Cummings was born in Chicago, Illinois to Lillian Garvy Cummings and Walter J....	December 1952–March 1953
Simon Sobeloff Simon Sobeloff Simon E. Sobeloff was an United States attorney and jurist, who served as Solicitor General of the United States, as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, and as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit....	February 1954–July 1956	Dwight Eisenhower
J. Lee Rankin J. Lee Rankin James Lee Rankin was the 31st U.S. Solicitor General, from 1956 to 1961. In 1952, Rankin managed the Dwight Eisenhower for President campaign in Nebraska and in 1953, Eisenhower selected Rankin to serve as United States Assistant Attorney General....	August 1956–January 1961	Dwight Eisenhower
Archibald Cox Archibald Cox Archibald Cox, Jr., was an United States lawyer who served as United States Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy, and later became best known as the first special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal....	January 1961–July 1965	John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall 'Thurgood Marshall' was an United States jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Before becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v....	August 1965–August 1967	Lyndon Johnson
Erwin N. Griswold	October 1967–June 1973	Lyndon Johnson
Robert H. Bork	June 1973–January 1977	Richard Nixon Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the only president to resign the office....
Wade H. McCree Wade H. McCree Wade Hampton McCree, Jr. was the first African American judge appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the second African American United States Solicitor General in the history of the United States....	March 1977–August 1981	Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize....
Rex E. Lee Rex E. Lee Rex Edwin Lee from St. Johns, Arizona, Arizona was a United States Constitution lawyer, a law clerk for former Supreme Court of the United States Justice Byron White, and the United States Solicitor General under the Presidency of Ronald Reagan....	August 1981–June 1985	Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California . Born in Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s, where he was an actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild , and a spokesman for General Electric ....
Charles Fried Charles Fried Charles Fried is a prominent American jurist and lawyer. He served as United States Solicitor General from 1985 to 1989. He is currently a professor at Harvard Law School....	October 1985–January 1989
Kenneth W. Starr	May 1989–January 1993	George H. W. Bush George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1989 to 1993. Bush held a variety of political positions prior to his presidency, including Vice President of the United States in the administration of Ronald Reagan and Director of Central Intelligence under Gerald R....
Drew S. Days, III Drew S. Days, III Drew Saunders Days III, an United States lawyer, served as United States Solicitor General from 1993 to 1996 under President Bill Clinton. He also served as the first African American United States Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in the Jimmy Carter administration from 1977 to 1980....	May 1993–July 1996	Bill Clinton Bill Clinton William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the fifteenth Democrat elected to that office....
Walter E. Dellinger III Walter E. Dellinger III Walter Estes Dellinger, III is the Douglas B. Maggs Professor of Law at Duke University and head of the appellate practice at O?Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C.... (acting)	August 1996–October 1997
Seth P. Waxman Seth P. Waxman Seth Paul Waxman was the 41st Solicitor General of the United States. He was nominated by President Clinton on September 19, 1997, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 1997....	November 1997–January 2001
Barbara D. Underwood Barbara D. Underwood Barbara D. Underwood is New York State Attorney General.Underwood was born in Evansville, Indiana, to Dr. Robert Underwood and Mildred Underwood.... (acting)	January 2001–June 2001	George W. Bush George W. Bush George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
Theodore B. Olson Theodore Olson Theodore Bevry Olson was the 42nd United States Solicitor General, serving from June 2001 to July 2004....	June 2001–July 2004
Paul D. Clement	June 2004–June 2005 (acting) June 2005-June 2008
Gregory G. Garre Gregory G. Garre Gregory G. Garre is a former United States Solicitor General serving between June 19, 2008 to January 20, 2009. He spent his early life in his hometown of Barrington, Illinois, Illinois....	June 2008-October 2008 (acting) October 2008–January 2009
Edwin Kneedler Edwin Kneedler Edwin S. Kneedler is the Acting United States Solicitor General.... (acting)	January 2009–present	Barack Obama Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
Elena Kagan Elena Kagan Elena Kagan is Dean of Harvard Law School and Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law at Harvard University. She was previously a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School.... (pending confirmation)	?

United States Solicitor General

Significance

Traditions

Solicitors General since 1870

External links