The United States Solicitor General is the individual appointed to argue for the Government of the United States in front of the Supreme Court of the United States, when the government is party to a case. The current Solicitor General is Paul Clement.

Official duties

Nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, the Solicitor General is the fourth-ranking officer in the United States Department of Justice, behind the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, and the Associate Attorney General. Despite this formal "rank", the Solicitor General is removed from the administrative duties of the Justice Department, focusing instead on advocating for the federal government before the Supreme Court. Part of the Solicitor General's duty is to be the attorney representing U.S. federal government agents and agencies in cases appealed to the Supreme Court. While the Solicitor General's duty is defined as being to the Attorney General on behalf of the Constitution and the entire federal government, in practice the Solicitor General's "client" is the President of the United States. This means that when a suit before the Supreme Court concerns a point of law with policy implications for the executive branch, the Solicitor General's broad position is generally determined by the President. Such is the case with current litigation about the "War on Terror", wherein the Solicitor General advocates a technical legal position based upon the President's political position. Above and beyond actually arguing cases before the Court, the solicitor general's office files amicus curiae in virtually every case of significance to the federal government, even if it is not directly involved.

Significance

The Solicitor General, who has offices in the Supreme Court Building as well as the Department of Justice Headquarters, has been nicknamed the "10th justice", due to the frequent interaction and subsequent special relationship between the justices and the Solicitor General and their respective staffs of clerks/deputies. As the most frequent advocate before the Court (they appear dozens of times before the Court each term whereas even experienced private Supreme Court litigators often have less than ten appearances in their careers), the Solicitor General is extremely comfortable with the justices during the intimidating oral argument process. Further, when the Solicitor General's office requests or recommends that a petition be granted certiorari, it is frequently granted, which is remarkable given that only approximately 75–125 petitions are granted review by the Court out of the over 7,500 submitted. As a result, the Solicitor General is considered to be among the most influential and knowledgeable people about the Supreme Court and constitutional law, other than the justices themselves. Given the level of legal ability and expertise required by such an important position, the office of United States Solicitor General is generally considered to be the highest office for a practicing lawyer in the United States, as opposed to the United States Attorney General, which while always held by a lawyer, is more of administrative, political office. Not surprisingly, many who have worked as or for the Solicitor General have gone onto appointment as Supreme Court Justices.

Traditions

The office of Solicitor General was founded in 1870 and several traditions have since developed. Per law, the Solicitor General must hold a law degree, which is not required of the Attorney General or Supreme Court justices. Most obvious to visitors at the Supreme Court building for oral arguments is the traditional practice of the Solicitor General and their deputies of wearing formal morning coats. Of more technical significance is the permitting the Solicitor General to "lodge" new evidence into an appellate record, evidence which normally would not be considered by the justices. Another tradition (that is possibly unique in the United States) is the Solicitor General's right and practice of confession of judgment in cases where he considers the government's prior official position to be clearly unjust: he can just drop the case, even if the government has already won in the lower courts. Solicitor General Paul Clement made such a confession in January 2005 regarding a law prohibiting the display of marijuana policy reform ads in public transportation. Clement stated in a letter to Congress that "the government does not have a viable argument to advance in the statute's defense."^[1]

Solicitors General since 1870

Solicitor General	Date of Service	Appointing President
Benjamin H. Bristow	October 1870–November 1872	Ulysses Grant
Samuel F. Phillips	November 1872–May 1885
John Goode (Acting)	May 1885–August 1886	Grover Cleveland
George A. Jenks	July 1886–May 1889
Orlow W. Chapman	May 1889–January 1890	Benjamin Harrison
William Howard Taft	February 1890–March 1892
Charles H. Aldrich	March 1892–May 1893
Lawrence Maxwell, Jr.	April 1893–January 1895	Grover Cleveland
Holmes Conrad	February 1895–July 1897
John K. Richards	July 1897–March 1903	William McKinley
Henry M. Hoyt	February 1903–March 1909	Theodore Roosevelt
Lloyd Wheaton Bowers	April 1909–September 1910	William Taft
Frederick W. Lehmann	December 1910–July 1912
William Marshall Bullit	July 1912–March 1913
John W. Davis	August 1913–November 1918	Woodrow Wilson
Alexander C. King	November 1918–May 1920
William L. Frierson	June 1920–June 1921
James M. Beck	June 1921–June 1925	Warren Harding
William D. Mitchell	June 1925–March 1929	Calvin Coolidge
Charles Evans Hughes, Jr	May 1929–April 1930	Herbert Hoover
Thomas D. Thacher	March 1930–May 1933
James Crawford Biggs	May 1933–March 1935	Franklin Roosevelt
Stanley Reed	March 1935–January 1938
Robert H. Jackson	March 1938–January 1940
Francis Biddle	January 1940–September 1941
Charles H. Fahy	November 1941–September 1945
J. Howard McGrath	October 1945–October 1946	Harry Truman
Philip B. Perlman	July 1947–August 1952
Walter J. Cummings, Jr.	December 1952–March 1953
Simon Sobeloff	February 1954–July 1956	Dwight Eisenhower
J. Lee Rankin	August 1956–January 1961
Archibald Cox	January 1961–July 1965	John F. Kennedy
Thurgood Marshall	August 1965–August 1967	Lyndon Johnson
Erwin N. Griswold	October 1967–June 1973
Robert H. Bork	June 1973–January 1977	Richard Nixon
Wade H. McCree	March 1977–August 1981	Jimmy Carter
Rex E. Lee	August 1981–June 1985	Ronald Reagan
Charles Fried	October 1985–January 1989
Kenneth W. Starr	May 1989–January 1993	George H. W. Bush
Drew S. Days, III	May 1993–July 1996	Bill Clinton
Walter E. Dellinger III (acting)	August 1996–October 1997
Seth P. Waxman	November 1997–January 2001
Barbara D. Underwood (acting)	January 2001–June 2001
Theodore B. Olson	June 2001–July 2004	George W. Bush
Paul D. Clement	June 2005–present

References

• Hall, Kermit. The Oxford Guide to the Supreme Court of the United States

External links

• Official website

•  • [ e] United States Solicitors General
Bristow • Phillips • Goode • Jenks • Chapman • Taft • Aldrich • Maxwell • Conrad • Richards • Hoyt • Bowers • Lehmann • Bullit • Davis • King • Frierson • Beck • Mitchell • Hughes • Thacher • Biggs • Reed • Jackson • Biddle • Fahy • McGrath • Perlman • Cummings • Sobeloff • Rankin • Cox • Marshall • Griswold • Bork • McCree • Lee • Fried • Starr • Days • Dellinger • Waxman • Olson • Clement

•  • [ e] Agencies under the United States Department of Justice

Attorney General Deputy Attorney General Justice Management Division • Criminal Division • National Security Division • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives • Drug Enforcement Administration • Federal Bureau of Investigation • Federal Bureau of Prisons • National Institute of Corrections • United States Marshals Service • Executive Office for Immigration Review • Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management • Office of the Federal Detention Trustee • Office of Intelligence Policy and Review • Office of the Pardon Attorney • Office of Professional Responsibility • Office on Sexual Violence and Crimes against Children • Office of Tribal Justice • Professional Responsibility Advisory Office • United States Attorneys • United States Trustee Program • INTERPOL, U.S. National Central Bureau • National Drug Intelligence Center • United States Parole Commission Associate Attorney General Office of Justice Programs • Office of Dispute Resolution • Office on Violence Against Women • Community Oriented Policing Services • Office of Information and Privacy • Foreign Claims Settlement Commission • Antitrust Division • Civil Division • Civil Rights Division • Environment and Natural Resources Division • Tax Division • Community Relations Service • Office of Legal Counsel • Office of Legal Policy Solicitor General

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