United States Solicitor General
Seal of the Department of Justice Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General
Incumbent Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. since 9 June 2011
Department	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 the office of the Solicitor General

The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June 9, 2011.^[1][2] Verrilli's predecessor on a permanent basis, Elena Kagan, was nominated to the Supreme Court and confirmed by the Senate in August 2010.^[3] Between Kagan and Verrilli's tenures, the Principal Deputy, Neal Katyal, had served as Acting Solicitor General.^[4]

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 in the legal issue. 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 office of the Solicitor General 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 [edit]

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 Principal Deputy currently is Sri Srinivasan. The other deputies currently are Michael Dreeben, Edwin Kneedler, and Malcolm Stewart.

The Solicitor General or one of the deputies typically argues the most important cases in the Supreme Court. Cases not argued by the Solicitor General 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.^[5]

Significance [edit]

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"^[6] 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 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.^[7]

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. Five 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 G. Roberts, Jr. was the Principal Deputy Solicitor General (and Acting SG for one case^[8]) 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. The Solicitor General is the only U.S. officer that is statutorily required to be "learned in law."^[9] 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 [edit]

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,^[10] although Elena Kagan, the first woman to hold the office, elected to forgo the practice.^[11] On at least one occasion, there was concern that the manner in which advocates before the Court dress might have an effect on the decision. For example, when Leon Jaworski argued for the disclosure of Richard Nixon's tapes during the Watergate crisis, he wished to convey the impression that he was acting on behalf of the Government, and thus, by tradition, should have worn a morning coat. At the same time, Jaworski believed that such attire made him look like a penguin and slightly ridiculous. After discreet inquiries, he learned that it would be permissible for him to appear in a business suit.^{[citation needed]}

During oral argument, the members of the Court often use the formal address "General."

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.^[12]

List of Solicitors General [edit]

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	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 – March 1973[1]
	Robert H. Bork	March 1973 [2] – January 1977	Richard Nixon
	Daniel Mortimer Friedman (acting)	January 1977 – March 1977	Jimmy Carter
	Wade H. McCree	March 1977 – August 1981
	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
	John Roberts (acting)	1990 for the purposes of one case when Ken Starr had a conflict[8]	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
	Elena Kagan	March 2009 – May 2010
	Neal Katyal	May 2010 – June 2011 (acting)
	Donald Verrilli Jr.	June 2011 – present

Notes [edit]

References [edit]

• 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 [edit]

• Official website

v t e United States Solicitors General Bristow Phillips Goode Jenks Chapman Taft Aldrich Maxwell Conrad Richards Hoyt Bowers Lehmann Bullitt 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 Underwood Olson Clement Garre Kneedler Kagan Katyal Verrilli Acting officeholders shown in italics

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