Solicitor General of the United States

United States Solicitor General
Seal of the Department of Justice
Incumbent Neal Katyal (Acting) since 17 May 2010
Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General
Formation	October 1870 Prior to this date, the Attorney General exercised most of the duties now performed by the Solicitor General.
First holder	Benjamin H. Bristow
Succession	Not Eligible
Website	Office of the Solicitor General

Organization of Solicitor General's Office

The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the Government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. Currently, the Solicitor General is Elena Kagan, who was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 19, 2009.

The Solicitor General determines the legal position that the United States will take in the Supreme Court. In addition to supervising and conducting cases in which the government is a party, the Solicitor General's office also files amicus curiae briefs in cases in which the federal government has a significant interest in the legal issue. The Solicitor General's office argues on behalf of the government in virtually every case in which the United States is a party, and also argues in most of the cases in which the government has filed an amicus brief. In the federal courts of appeals, the Office of the Solicitor General reviews cases decided against the United States and determines whether the government will seek review in the Supreme Court. The Solicitor General's office also reviews cases decided against the United States in the federal district courts and approves every case in which the government files an appeal.

Composition of the Office of the Solicitor General

The Solicitor General is assisted by four deputies and seventeen attorney assistants. Three of the deputies are career attorneys in the Department of Justice. The remaining deputy is known as the "Principal Deputy," sometimes called the "political deputy" and, like the Solicitor General, typically leaves at the end of an administration. The Principal Deputy currently is Neal Katyal. The other deputies currently are Michael Dreeben, Edwin Kneedler, and Malcolm L. Stewart.

The Solicitor General or one of the deputies typically argues the most important cases in the Supreme Court. Each of the attorney assistants also typically argues cases each year.

Significance

The Solicitor General, who has offices in the Supreme Court Building as well as the Department of Justice Headquarters, has been called the "tenth justice" as a result of 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 Office of the Solicitor General generally argues dozens of times each term. 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, 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 among the most influential and knowledgeable members of the legal community with regard to Supreme Court litigation. Four Solicitors General have later served on the Supreme Court: Robert H. Jackson, Stanley Forman Reed, Thurgood Marshall, and William Howard Taft (who was Chief Justice of the United States). Some who have had other positions in the office of the Solicitor General have also later been appointed to the Supreme Court. For example, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. was the Principal Deputy Solicitor General during the George H.W.Bush administration and Associate Justice Samuel Alito was an Assistant to the Solicitor General. Only one former Solicitor General has been nominated to the Supreme Court unsuccessfully, that being Robert Bork; however, no sitting Solicitor General has ever been denied such an appointment. Eight other Solicitors General have served on the United States Courts of Appeals.

Within the Justice Department, the Solicitor General exerts significant influence on all appeals brought by the department. Whenever the DOJ wins at the trial stage and the losing party appeals, the concerned division of the DOJ responds automatically and proceeds to defend the ruling in the appellate process. However, if the DOJ is the losing party at the trial stage, an appeal can only be brought with the permission of the Solicitor General. For example, should the tort division lose a jury trial in federal district court, that ruling cannot be appealed by the Appellate 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, although Elena Kagan, the first woman to hold the office, has elected to forego the practice. During oral argument, the members of the Court often use the formal address, "General." 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: the Solicitor General can simply drop a case if he or she considers the government's prior official position to be unjust, even if the government has already won in lower court.

List of Solicitors General

Picture	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 Bullitt	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	George W. Bush
	Theodore B. Olson	June 2001–July 2004
	Paul D. Clement	June 2004–June 2005 (acting) June 2005–June 2008
	Gregory G. Garre	June 2008–October 2008 (acting) October 2008–January 2009
	Edwin Kneedler	January 2009–March 2009 (acting)	Barack Obama
File:Elena Kagan portrait.jpg	Elena Kagan	March 2009–May 2010
	Neal Katyal (acting)	May 2010–present

References

• Lincoln Caplan, The Tenth Justice: The Solicitor General and the Rule of Law (New York: Knopf, 1987)
• Kermit Hall. The Oxford Guide to the Supreme Court of the United States

External links

• Official website