United States Solicitor General
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Solicitor General works within the United States Department of Justice; he or she is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Among lawyers and jurists, the office of United States Solicitor General is generally considered to be the highest office for a practicing lawyer in the United States.
[edit] Traditions
The office of Solicitor General was founded in 1870, and some traditions have been established. Whenever the Solicitor General or one of his deputies argues a case before the Supreme Court he continues to wear late 19th century style dress, with striped pants, grey ascot, black vest, and a cutaway morning coat, making him a very distinctive sight in the courtroom.
Another, very substantive, 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."
[edit] Solicitors General Since 1870
| Solicitor General | Date of Service | 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 | |
| Theodore Olson | June 2001 - July 2004 | George W. Bush |
| Paul Clement | July 2004 - present |
[edit] External link
| 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 |
