Solicitor General of the United States

The Solicitor General of the United States is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. The current acting Solicitor General, Jeff Wall, has been serving in the role since July 3, 2020.[1]

"USSG" redirects here. For the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, see United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines. For the U.S. Surgeon General, see Surgeon General of the United States.

Solicitor General of the United States
Flag of the United States Solicitor General
Incumbent Jeff Wall Acting since July 3, 2020
United States Department of Justice
Style	Mr. Solicitor General
Reports to	United States Attorney General
Seat	Supreme Court Building and Department of Justice Headquarters
Appointer	The President with Senate advice and consent
Constituting instrument	28 U.S.C. § 505
Formation	October 1870
First holder	Benjamin Bristow
Deputy	Principal Deputy Solicitor General
Website	www.usdoj.gov

Organization of the office of the Solicitor General

The United States Solicitor General represents the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. 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 office of the Solicitor General also files amicus curiae briefs in cases in which the federal government has a significant interest. The office of the Solicitor General 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 appeal, 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 Deputy Solicitors General and seventeen Assistants to the Solicitor General. 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 current Principal Deputy is Jeffrey B. Wall, who succeeded Noel J. Francisco after Francisco was nominated to be Solicitor General in March 2017. The other deputies currently are Eric Feigin (who oversees the office's criminal docket), Edwin Kneedler, and Malcolm Stewart.

The Solicitor General or one of the deputies typically argues the most important cases in the Supreme Court. Other cases may be argued by one of the assistants or another government attorney. The Solicitors General tend to argue 6–9 cases per Supreme Court term, while deputies argue 4–5 cases and assistants each argue 2–3 cases.[2]

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"[3] as a result of the close relationship 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. Furthermore, when the office of the Solicitor General 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.[4]

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. Six Solicitors General have later served on the Supreme Court: William Howard Taft (who served as the 27th President of the United States before becoming Chief Justice of the United States), Stanley Forman Reed, Robert H. Jackson, Thurgood Marshall, and Elena Kagan. 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 Roberts 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. The last former Solicitor General to be successfully nominated to the court was Justice Elena Kagan.[5] 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. The Solicitor General is the only U.S. officer that is statutorily required to be "learned in law."[6] 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.

Call for the Views of the Solicitor General

When determining whether to grant certiorari in a case where the federal government is not a party, the Court will sometimes request the Solicitor General to weigh in, a procedure referred to as a "Call for the Views of the Solicitor General" (CVSG).[7] In response to a CVSG, the Solicitor General will file a brief opining on whether the petition should be granted and, usually, which party should prevail.[8]

Although the CVSG is technically an invitation, the Solicitor General's office treats it as tantamount to a command.[8] Philip Elman, who served as an attorney in the Solicitor General's office and who was primary author of the federal government's brief in Brown v. Board of Education, wrote, "When the Supreme Court invites you, that's the equivalent of a royal command. An invitation from the Supreme Court just can't be rejected."[9][10]

The Court typically issues a CVSG where the justices believe that the petition is important, and may be considering granting it, but would like a legal opinion before making that decision.[9] Examples include where there is a federal interest involved in the case; where there is a new issue for which there is no established precedent; or where an issue has evolved, perhaps becoming more complex or affecting other issues.[9]

Although there is usually no deadline by which the Solicitor General is required to respond to a CVSG, briefs in response to the CVSG are generally filed at three times of the year: late May, allowing the petition to be considered before the Court breaks for summer recess; August, allowing the petition to go on the "summer list", to be considered at the end of recess; and December, allowing the case to be argued in the remainder of the current Supreme Court term.[8]

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,[11] although Elena Kagan, the only woman to hold the office, elected to forgo the practice.[12]

During oral argument, the members of the Court often address the Solicitor General as "General." Some legal commentators have disagreed with this usage, noting that "general" is a postpositive adjective (which modifies the noun "solicitor"), and is not a title itself.[13]

Another tradition, possibly unique to the United States, is the practice of confession of error. If the government prevailed in the lower court but the Solicitor General disagrees with the result, he or she may confess error, after which the Supreme Court will vacate the lower court's ruling and send the case back for reconsideration.[14]

List of Solicitors General

Picture	Solicitor General	Date of service	Appointing President
	Benjamin Bristow	October 11, 1870 – November 15, 1872	Ulysses Grant
	Samuel Phillips	December 11, 1872 – May 1, 1885
	John Goode	May 1, 1885 – August 5, 1886	Grover Cleveland
	George Jenks	July 30, 1886 – May 29, 1889
	Orlow Chapman	May 29, 1889 – January 19, 1890	Benjamin Harrison
	William Taft	February 4, 1890 – March 20, 1892
	Charles Aldrich	March 21, 1892 – May 28, 1893
	Lawrence Maxwell	April 6, 1893 – January 30, 1895	Grover Cleveland
	Holmes Conrad	February 6, 1895 – July 1, 1897
	John Richards	July 6, 1897 – March 16, 1903	William McKinley
	Henry Hoyt	February 25, 1903 – March 31, 1909	Teddy Roosevelt
	Lloyd Bowers	April 1, 1909 – September 9, 1910	William Taft
	Frederick Lehmann	December 12, 1910 – July 15, 1912
	William Bullitt	July 16, 1912 – March 11, 1913
	John Davis	August 30, 1913 – November 26, 1918	Woodrow Wilson
	Alexander King	November 27, 1918 – May 23, 1920
	William Frierson	June 1, 1920 – June 30, 1921
	James Beck	June 1, 1921 – May 11, 1925	Warren Harding
	William Mitchell	June 4, 1925 – March 5, 1929	Calvin Coolidge
	Charles Hughes	May 27, 1929 – April 16, 1930	Herbert Hoover
	Thomas Thacher	March 22, 1930 – May 4, 1933
	James Biggs	May 5, 1933 – March 24, 1935	Franklin Roosevelt
	Stanley Reed	March 25, 1935 – January 30, 1938
	Robert Jackson	March 5, 1938 – January 17, 1940
	Francis Biddle	January 22, 1940 – September 4, 1941
	Charles Fahy	November 15, 1941 – September 27, 1945
	Howard McGrath	October 4, 1945 – October 7, 1946	Harry Truman
	Philip Perlman	July 30, 1947 – August 15, 1952
	Walter Cummings	December 2, 1952 – March 1, 1953
	Simon Sobeloff	February 10, 1954 – July 19, 1956	Dwight Eisenhower
	Lee Rankin	August 4, 1956 – January 23, 1961
	Archibald Cox	January 24, 1961 – July 31, 1965	John F. Kennedy
	Thurgood Marshall	August 11, 1965 – August 30, 1967	Lyndon Johnson
	Erwin Griswold	October 12, 1967 – June 25, 1973
	Robert Bork	June 27, 1973 – January 20, 1977	Richard Nixon
			Gerald Ford
	Daniel Friedman Acting	January 20, 1977 – March 4, 1977	Jimmy Carter
	Wade McCree	March 4, 1977 – January 20, 1981
	Rex Lee	August 6, 1981 – June 1, 1985	Ronald Reagan
	Charles Fried	October 23, 1985 – January 20, 1989 Acting: June 1, 1985 – October 23, 1985
	William Bryson Acting	January 20, 1989 – May 27, 1989	George H. W. Bush
	Ken Starr	May 27, 1989 – January 20, 1993
	William Bryson Acting	January 20, 1993 – June 7, 1993	Bill Clinton
	Drew Days	June 7, 1993 – June 28, 1996
	Walter Dellinger Acting	June 28, 1996 – November 7, 1997
	Seth Waxman	November 7, 1997 – January 20, 2001
	Barbara Underwood Acting	January 20, 2001 – June 13, 2001	George W. Bush
	Ted Olson	June 13, 2001 – July 13, 2004
	Paul Clement	June 13, 2005 – June 2, 2008 Acting: July 13, 2004 – June 13, 2005
	Gregory Garre	October 2, 2008 – January 20, 2009 Acting: June 2, 2008 – October 2, 2008
	Edwin Kneedler Acting	January 20, 2009 – March 20, 2009	Barack Obama
	Elena Kagan	March 20, 2009 – May 17, 2010
	Neal Katyal Acting	May 17, 2010 – June 9, 2011
	Don Verrilli	June 9, 2011 – June 25, 2016
	Ian Gershengorn Acting	June 25, 2016 – January 20, 2017
	Noel Francisco Acting	January 20, 2017 – March 10, 2017	Donald Trump
	Jeff Wall Acting	March 10, 2017 – September 19, 2017
	Noel Francisco	September 19, 2017 – July 3, 2020
	Jeff Wall Acting	July 3, 2020 – present

Note: Some terms overlap because the incumbent remained in office after a successor was named. The office has been vacant at times while awaiting the nomination or confirmation of a successor.

List of notable Principal Deputy Solicitors General

• Paul M. Bator – 1982 to 1983
• Donald B. Ayer – June 1986 to December 1988
• John Roberts – October 1989–January 1993[15][16] (Became Chief Justice)
• Paul Bender – 1993–1996
• Seth Waxman – 1996–1997
• Barbara Underwood – March 1997 to January 2001 (acting SG from January to June 2001)[17]
• Paul D. Clement – 2001 to July 2004 (became acting SG)[18][19]
• Gregory G. Garre – September 2005-June 19, 2008 (became acting SG)
• Neal Katyal – January 2009 to May 2010 (became acting SG)[20][21]
• Leondra Kruger – acting principal deputy SG named in August 2010[22][23]
• Sri Srinivasan – August 2011 to May 2013[24][25]
• Ian Gershengorn – September 2013 to June 2016 (became Acting SG)[26][27]
• Noel Francisco – January 2017 to March 2017 (became SG)
• Jeff Wall – March 2017 to present (became Acting SG)[28][1]

Notes

1. "DOJ's Jeffrey Wall Will Be Acting US Solicitor, as Noel Francisco Heads Out". Law.com. June 17, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
2. Bhatia, Kedar S. (April 17, 2011). "Updated Advocate Scorecard (OT00-10)". Daily Writ.
3. Caplan, Lincoln (1987). The Tenth Justice: The Solicitor General and the Rule of Law. New York: Knopf.
4. Thompson, David C.; Wachtell, Melanie F. (2009). "An Empirical Analysis of Supreme Court Certiorari Petition Procedures". George Mason University Law Review. 16 (2): 237, 275. SSRN 1377522.
5. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/12/AR2010051205049.html RET. Dec. 27 2017 14:07 CST
6. Waxman, Seth (June 1, 1998). "'Presenting the Case of the United States As It Should Be': The Solicitor General in Historical Context". Address to the Supreme Court Historical Society. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
7. Black, Ryan C.; Owens, Ryan J. (April 30, 2012). The Solicitor General and the United States Supreme Court: Executive Branch Influence and Judicial Decisions. Cambridge University Press. pp. 142–143. ISBN 9781107015296. OCLC 761858397.
8. McElroy, Lisa (February 10, 2010). ""CVSG"s in plain English". ScotusBlog. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
9. Lepore, Stefanie (December 2010). "The Development of the Supreme Court Practice of Calling for the Views of the Solicitor General". Journal of Supreme Court History. SSRN 1496643.
10. Elman, Philip; Silber, Norman (February 1987). "The Solicitor General's Office, Justice Frankfurter, and Civil Rights Litigation, 1946-1960: An Oral History". Harvard Law Review. 100 (4): 817–852. doi:10.2307/1341096. JSTOR 1341096.
11. Suter, William. "Clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court". U.S. Supreme Court Week (Interview). C-SPAN.
12. Toobin, Jeffrey. "Money Unlimited, How Chief Justice John Roberts Orchestrated the Citizens United Decision". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
13. Herz, Michael (2002). "Washington, Patton, Schwarzkopf and ... Ashcroft?". Constitutional Commentary.
14. Bruhl, Aaron (March 1, 2010). "Solicitor General Confessions of Error". PrawfsBlawg. Retrieved February 23, 2011. (Discussing GVRs (grant, vacate, remand) in the context of confessions of error).
15. https://web.archive.org/web/20060130190201/http://leahy.senate.gov/DOX/SC/RobertsAnswersQuestionnairepp1-25part1.pdf
16. Biographies of Current Justices of the Supreme Court.
17. Stephanie Woodrow, Ex-Prosecutor to Join New York Attorney General's Office, Main Justice, December 23, 2010.
18. S. Hrg. 109-46
19. U.S. Department of Justice, Paul Clement to Serve As Acting Solicitor General, July 12, 2004.
20. Tom Goldstein, Neal Katyal to be Principal Deputy Solicitor General, SCOTUSblog, January 17, 2009.
21. Brent Kendall, Feds Prevail in Spat with Former Acting Solicitor General, Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2012
22. Ashby Jones, DOJ Taps 34-Year-Old for High-Ranking Position in SG's Office, Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2010
23. Tony Mauro, Surprise Appointment in SG's Office, The BLT: The Blog of the Legal Times, August 10, 2010.
24. U.S. Department of Justice, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Appoints Sri Srinivasan as Principal Deputy Solicitor General, August 26, 2011.
25. Sri Srinivasan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
26. Tom Goldstein, The new Principal Deputy Solicitor General, SCOTUSblog, August 9, 2013.
27. Tony Mauro, Gershengorn Named Principal Deputy Solicitor General, The BLT: The Blog of the Legal Times, August 12, 2013
28. "Chris Geidner on Twitter: "Big news in here: Jeff Wall (Trump-era hire, came from Sullivan & Cromwell, is returning to DOJ) is now the US acting solicitor general."". Twitter. March 13, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2020.

References

• Caplan, Lincoln (1987). The Tenth Justice: The Solicitor General and the Rule of Law. New York: Knopf.
• Hall, Kermit L. (1992). The Oxford Guide to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Jost, Kenneth (2012). The Supreme Court A to Z. Los Angeles: CQ Press.

External links

• Official website