The solicitor general of the United States,the fourth-highest ranking official within the United States Department of Justice,represents the federal government in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Elizabeth Prelogar has served in the role since October 28,2021.
Craig v. Boren,429 U.S. 190 (1976),was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court ruling that statutory or administrative sex classifications were subject to intermediate scrutiny under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The case was argued by future Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg while she was working for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Van Orden v. Perry,545 U.S. 677 (2005),is a United States Supreme Court case involving whether a display of the Ten Commandments on a monument given to the government at the Texas State Capitol in Austin violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
John Glover Roberts Jr. is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. He has been described as having a moderate conservative judicial philosophy,though he is primarily an institutionalist. He has shown a willingness to work with the Supreme Court's liberal bloc,and has been regarded as a swing vote on the Court.
Paul Drew Clement is an American lawyer who served as U.S. Solicitor General from 2004 to 2008 and is known for his advocacy before the U.S. Supreme Court. He established his own law firm,Clement &Murphy,in 2022 after leaving Kirkland &Ellis,following that firm’s decision to end its Second Amendment work. He is also a Distinguished Lecturer in Law at Georgetown University and an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on March 14,2005,for the post of Solicitor General,confirmed by the United States Senate on June 8,2005,and took the oath of office on June 13.
Maureen E. Mahoney is a former deputy solicitor general and an appellate lawyer at the law firm of Latham &Watkins in Washington,D.C.,who has argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Notably,she argued on behalf of the University of Michigan and its affirmative action program in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003),in which the Court decided in favor of Michigan by a 5–4 vote.
Philip Jonathan Perry is an American attorney and was a political appointee in the administration of George W. Bush. He was acting associate attorney general at the Department of Justice,general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget,and general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. He is a partner at Latham &Watkins in Washington,D.C. He has handled matters before the U.S. Supreme Court,the U.S. Courts of Appeals,and U.S. District Courts across the country. He is known both for his work litigating biotechnology issues and his work on constitutional and federal regulatory matters. Perry was named a "Litigation Trailblazer" by The National Law Journal in 2018 for his "remarkable successes" in litigation,and has seen continued success in 2019,winning cases in both federal appellate and trial courts. He is the husband of Congresswoman Liz Cheney and the son-in-law of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Neal Kumar Katyal is an American corporate lawyer and academic. He is a partner at Hogan Lovells and the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Center. During the Obama administration,Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States from May 2010 until June 2011. Previously,Katyal served as an attorney in the Solicitor General's office,and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the U.S. Justice Department.
League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry,548 U.S. 399 (2006),is a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court ruled that only District 23 of the 2003 Texas redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act. The Court refused to throw out the entire plan,ruling that the plaintiffs failed to state a sufficient claim of partisan gerrymandering.
Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council,555 U.S. 7 (2008),was a decision by the United States Supreme Court concerning whether federal law restricted the United States Navy's ability to use sonar during drills given the possibility of a harmful effect on marine mammals such as whales.
Edwin Smiley Kneedler is an American lawyer who has served as Deputy United States Solicitor General since 1993. As of June 2020,he has argued more cases before the Supreme Court of the United States than any other active advocate.
Donald Beaton Verrilli Jr. is an American lawyer who served as the solicitor general of the United States from 2011 to 2016. President Barack Obama nominated Verrilli to the post on January 26,2011. On June 6,the United States Senate confirmed Verrilli in a 72–16 vote,and he was sworn in on June 9. Verrilli previously served in the Obama administration as the associate deputy attorney general and as Deputy Counsel to the President. He is currently a partner in the Washington,D.C. office of Munger,Tolles &Olson and a lecturer at Columbia University Law School,his alma mater.
David Charles Frederick is an appellate attorney in Washington,D.C.,and is a partner with Kellogg,Hansen,Todd,Figel &Frederick,P.L.L.C. He has argued over 50 cases before the Supreme Court.
Christian Legal Society v. Martinez,561 U.S. 661 (2010),is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld,against a First Amendment challenge,the policy of the University of California,Hastings College of the Law,governing official recognition of student groups,which required the groups to accept all students regardless of their status or beliefs in order to obtain recognition.
John J. Bursch was the 10th Michigan Solicitor General. He was appointed by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on February 28,2011. Prior to being Michigan Solicitor General,Bursch served as chair of the Appellate Practice and Public-Affairs Litigation Groups at Warner Norcross &Judd. Bursch argued in more than 6% of all the cases the U.S. Supreme Court heard during his tenure as solicitor general. Bursch returned to private practice at Warner Norcross &Judd in December 2013,and founded his own law firm in 2016,Bursch Law.
Fisher v. University of Texas,570 U.S. 297 (2013),also known as Fisher I,is a United States Supreme Court case concerning the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Texas at Austin. The Supreme Court voided the lower appellate court's ruling in favor of the university and remanded the case,holding that the lower court had not applied the standard of strict scrutiny,articulated in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978),to its admissions program. The Court's ruling in Fisher took Grutter and Bakke as given and did not directly revisit the constitutionality of using race as a factor in college admissions.
Bowman v. Monsanto Co.,569 U.S. 278 (2013),was a United States Supreme Court patent decision in which the Court unanimously affirmed the decision of the Federal Circuit that the patent exhaustion doctrine does not permit a farmer to plant and grow saved,patented seeds without the patent owner's permission. The case arose after Vernon Hugh Bowman,an Indiana farmer,bought transgenic soybean crop seeds from a local grain elevator for his second crop of the season. Monsanto originally sold the seed from which these soybeans were grown to farmers under a limited use license that prohibited the farmer-buyer from using the seeds for more than a single season or from saving any seed produced from the crop for replanting. The farmers sold their soybean crops to the local grain elevator,from which Bowman then bought them. After Bowman replanted the crop seeds for his second harvest,Monsanto filed a lawsuit claiming that he infringed on their patents by replanting soybeans without a license. In response,Bowman argued that Monsanto's claims were barred under the doctrine of patent exhaustion,because all future generations of soybeans were embodied in the first generation that was originally sold.
Cooper v. Harris,581 U.S. ___ (2017),is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court ruled 5–3 that the North Carolina General Assembly used race too heavily in re-drawing two Congressional districts following the 2010 Census.
Jeffrey Bryan Wall is an American attorney and former government official who served as the acting Solicitor General of the United States and the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States during the Donald Trump administration. He is now a partner and head of Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at Sullivan &Cromwell in New York and Washington,DC.
Babb v. Wilkie,589 U.S. ___ (2020),is a case of the United States Supreme Court in which the justices considered the scope of protections for federal employees in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Specifically,the Court ruled that plaintiffs only need to prove that age was a motivating factor in the decision in order to sue. However,establishing but for causation is still necessary in determining the appropriate remedy. If a plaintiff can establish that the age was the determining factor in the employment outcome,they may be entitled to compensatory damages or other relief relating to the result of the employment decision.
