75-676: The solicitor general of the United States ( USSG or SG ), the fourth-highest-ranking official within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), represents the federal government in cases before the Supreme Court of the United States . The solicitor general is appointed by the president and reports directly to the United States attorney general . The solicitor general's office argues on behalf of
150-501: A certiorari petition. The Supreme Court sometimes grants a writ of certiorari to resolve a " circuit split ", when the federal appeals courts in two (or more) federal judicial circuits have ruled differently in similar situations. These are often called "percolating issues". Certiorari is sometimes informally referred to as cert. , and cases warranting the Supreme Court's attention as " cert. worthy". The granting of
225-477: A "Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team" during the Aspen Cyber Summit. Certiorari In law , certiorari is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency . Certiorari comes from the name of an English prerogative writ , issued by a superior court to direct that the record of the lower court be sent to the superior court for review. The term
300-411: 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. 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. Although there
375-512: A case where the federal government is not a party, the Court will sometimes request that the solicitor general weigh in, a procedure referred to as a "call for the views of the solicitor general" (CVSG). 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. Although the CVSG is technically an invitation,
450-444: A final decision in the case. This is part of a general prohibition on interlocutory appeals in criminal matters. Certiorari is also available if a decision affects the rights of a third party who would not have standing to appeal the decision. The Supreme Court declined to decide whether certiorari would be available to address a legal error that threatens irreparable harm to a party's rights that could not be cured on appeal. In
525-594: A full-time job, in 1867, the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary , led by Congressman William Lawrence , conducted an inquiry into the creation of a "law department" headed by the attorney general and also composed of the various department solicitors and United States attorneys . On February 19, 1868, Lawrence introduced a bill in Congress to create the Department of Justice. President Ulysses S. Grant signed
600-408: A lower court decision. In English common law , certiorari was a supervisory writ, serving to keep "all inferior jurisdictions within the bounds of their authority ... [protecting] the liberty of the subject, by speedy and summary interposition". In England and Wales, the Court of King's Bench was tasked with the duty of supervising all lower courts, and had power to issue all writs necessary for
675-432: A mandatory review regime, in which the supreme court must take all appeals in order to preserve the loser's traditional right to one appeal (except in criminal cases where the defendant was acquitted). Virginia has an intermediate appeals court, but operates under discretionary review except in family law and administrative cases. Mandatory review remains in place in all states where the death penalty exists; in those states,
750-561: A sentence of death is automatically appealed to the state's highest court. In two states without an intermediate appeals court (New Hampshire and West Virginia), the Supreme Court used to operate under discretionary review in all cases, whether civil or criminal. This meant that there was no right of appeal in either state, with the only exception being death penalty cases in New Hampshire; West Virginia abolished its death penalty in 1965. New Hampshire transitioned to mandatory review for
825-551: A small operation, with a staff of six. The main function was to generate legal opinions at the request of Lincoln and cabinet members, and handle occasional cases before the Supreme Court. Lincoln's cabinet was full of experienced lawyers who seldom felt the need to ask for his opinions. Bates had no authority over the US Attorneys around the country. The federal court system was handled by the Interior Department;
SECTION 10
#1732772361660900-464: A website that supported the USA PATRIOT Act . It was criticized by government watchdog groups for its alleged violation of U.S. Code Title 18 Section 1913, which forbids money appropriated by Congress to be used to lobby in favor of any law, actual or proposed. The website has since been taken offline. On October 5, 2021, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has announced the formation of
975-422: A writ does not necessarily mean that the Supreme Court disagrees with the decision of the lower court. Granting a writ of certiorari means merely that at least four of the justices have determined that the circumstances described in the petition are sufficient to warrant review by the Court. Conversely, the Supreme Court's denial of a petition for a writ of certiorari is sometimes misunderstood as implying that
1050-565: Is Latin for "to be made more certain", and comes from the opening line of such writs, which traditionally began with the Latin words " Certiorari volumus ..." ("We wish to be made more certain..."). Derived from the English common law , certiorari is prevalent in countries using, or influenced by, the common law . It has evolved in the legal system of each nation, as court decisions and statutory amendments are made. In modern law, certiorari
1125-522: Is a postpositive adjective (which modifies the noun "solicitor"), and is not a title itself. Another tradition is the practice of confession of error . If the government prevailed in the lower court but the solicitor general disagrees with the result, the solicitor general may confess error, after which the Supreme Court will vacate the lower court's ruling and send the case back for reconsideration. United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ ), also known as
1200-469: Is available as a matter of right. Before the Judiciary Act of 1891 , the cases that could reach the Supreme Court were heard as a matter of right, meaning that the Court was required to issue a decision in each of those cases. That is, the Court had to review all properly presented appeals on the merits, hear oral argument, and issue decisions. As the United States expanded in the nineteenth century,
1275-559: 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 solicitor general or one of the deputies typically presents the most important cases in the Supreme Court. Other cases may be argued by one of the assistants or another government attorney. The solicitor general tends to argue six to nine cases per Supreme Court term, while deputies argue four to five cases and assistants argue two to three cases each. The solicitor general, who has offices in
1350-691: Is recognized in many jurisdictions , including England and Wales (now called a "quashing order"), Canada , India , Ireland , the Philippines and the United States . With the expansion of administrative law in the 19th and 20th centuries, the writ of certiorari has gained broader use in many countries, to review the decisions of administrative bodies as well as lower courts. The term certiorari (US English: / ˌ s ɜːr ʃ i ə ˈ r ɛər i / , /- ˈ r ɑː r ɪ / , or /- ˈ r ɛər aɪ / ; UK English: / ˌ s ɜːr t i oʊ ˈ r ɛər aɪ / or /- ˈ r ɑː r ɪ / ) comes from
1425-403: 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
1500-478: The Justice Department , is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United States. It is equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries. The department is headed by the U.S. attorney general , who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of
1575-655: The Supreme Court Building as well as the Department of Justice headquarters , has been called the "tenth justice" 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
SECTION 20
#17327723616601650-516: The federal government took on some law enforcement responsibilities, and the Department of Justice was tasked with performing these. In 1884, control of federal prisons was transferred to the new department, from the Department of the Interior . New facilities were built, including the penitentiary at Leavenworth in 1895, and a facility for women located in West Virginia , at Alderson
1725-657: The Attorney General's office in the Department of Justice Main Building in Washington, D.C. The building was renamed in honor of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 2001. It is sometimes referred to as "Main Justice". The Justice Department also had a War Division during World War II . It was created in 1942 and disestablished in 1945. Several federal law enforcement agencies are administered by
1800-622: The Civil Procedure (Modification of Supreme Court Act 1981) Order 2004, which amended the Senior Courts Act 1981 . The Constitution of India vests the power to issue certiorari in the Supreme Court of India , for the purpose of enforcing the fundamental rights guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution . The Parliament of India has the authority to give a similar certiorari power to any other court to enforce
1875-411: The Constitution. Both Akerman and Bristow used the Department of Justice to vigorously prosecute Ku Klux Klan members in the early 1870s. In the first few years of Grant's first term in office, there were 1000 indictments against Klan members, with over 550 convictions from the Department of Justice. By 1871, there were 3000 indictments and 600 convictions, with most only serving brief sentences, while
1950-422: The Court has jurisdiction and which the Court considers sufficiently important, such as cases involving deep constitutional questions, to merit the use of its limited resources, utilizing tools such as the cert pool . While both appeals of right and cert petitions often present several alleged errors of the lower courts for appellate review, the court normally grants review of only one or two questions presented in
2025-540: The Court of Appeals opinion correctly stated the law. Thus, since June 1927, over 4,100 decisions of the Texas Courts of Appeals have become valid binding precedent of the Texas Supreme Court itself because the high court refused applications for writ of error rather than denying them and thereby signaled that it approved of their holdings as the law of the state. While Texas' unique practice saved
2100-458: The Crown in motion. In Australia, the power to issue certiorari is part of the inherent jurisdiction of the superior courts . In Canada, certiorari is a rarely-used power, part of the inherent jurisdiction of the superior courts. It is usually used to cancel a lower court's decision because of an obvious mistake. In R. v. Awashish, 2018 SCC 45, the Supreme Court of Canada restricted
2175-498: The Department of Justice) "who prosecutes on behalf of justice (or the Lady Justice)". The motto's conception of the prosecutor (or government attorney) as being the servant of justice itself finds concrete expression in a similarly-ordered English-language inscription ("THE UNITED STATES WINS ITS POINT WHENEVER JUSTICE IS DONE ITS CITIZENS IN THE COURTS") in the above-door paneling in the ceremonial rotunda anteroom just outside
2250-483: The Department of Justice. Similarly the Office of Domestic Preparedness left the Justice Department for the Department of Homeland Security, but only for executive purposes. The Office of Domestic Preparedness is still centralized within the Department of Justice, since its personnel are still officially employed within the Department of Justice. In 2003, the Department of Justice created LifeAndLiberty.gov,
2325-537: The Department of Justice: In March 2003, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service was abolished and its functions transferred to the United States Department of Homeland Security . The Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Board of Immigration Appeals , which review decisions made by government officials under Immigration and Nationality law, remain under jurisdiction of
Solicitor General of the United States - Misplaced Pages Continue
2400-485: The Department of the Interior, the prosecution of all federal crimes, and the representation of the United States in all court actions, barring the use of private attorneys by the federal government. The law also created the office of Solicitor General to supervise and conduct government litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States . With the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887,
2475-421: The Office of the Solicitor General endorses a petition for certiorari , review is frequently granted, which is influential given that only 75 to 125 of the over 7,500 petitions submitted each term are granted review by the Court. The solicitor general is considered an influential and knowledgeable member of the legal community with regard to Supreme Court litigation . Six solicitors general have later served on
2550-461: The Supreme Court approves the decision of the lower court. As the Court explained in Missouri v. Jenkins , such a denial "imports no expression of opinion upon the merits of the case". In particular, a denial of a writ of certiorari means that no binding precedent is created by the denial itself, and the lower court's decision is treated as mandatory authority only within the geographical (or in
2625-408: The Supreme Court. A "petition" is printed in booklet format and 40 copies are filed with the Court. If the Court grants the petition, the case is scheduled for the filing of briefs and for oral argument. A minimum of four of the nine justices is required to grant a writ of certiorari , referred to as the " rule of four ". The court denies the vast majority of petitions and thus leaves the decision of
2700-494: 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
2775-468: The Treasury handled claims. Most of the opinions turned out by Bates's office were of minor importance. Lincoln gave him no special assignments and did not seek his advice on Supreme Court appointments. Bates did have an opportunity to comment on general policy as a cabinet member with a strong political base, but he seldom spoke up. Following unsuccessful efforts in 1830 and 1846 to make attorney general
2850-553: The U.S. federal government in litigation: the Criminal , Civil , Antitrust , Tax , Civil Rights , Environment and Natural Resources , National Security , and Justice Management Divisions . The department also includes the U.S. Attorneys' Offices for each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts . The U.S. Congress created the Justice Department in 1870 during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant . The Justice Department's functions originally date to 1789, when Congress created
2925-651: The United States Constitution , which describes the judicial branch of the US federal government , wrote: In every judicial department, well arranged and well organized, there should be a regular, progressive, gradation of jurisdiction; and one supreme tribunal should superintend and govern all the others. An arrangement in this manner is proper for two reasons: If no superintending tribunal of this nature were established, different courts might adopt different and even contradictory rules of decision; and
3000-537: 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 who is statutorily required to be "learned in the law". 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
3075-538: The United States for judicial review of decisions made by an administrative agency after an adversarial hearing. Some states have retained this use of the writ of certiorari in state courts, while others have replaced it with statutory procedures. In the federal courts, this use of certiorari has been abolished and replaced by a civil action under the Administrative Procedure Act in a United States district court or in some circumstances
Solicitor General of the United States - Misplaced Pages Continue
3150-409: The United States in the United States district courts and decides whether the government will file an appeal. Elizabeth Prelogar has served as solicitor general since October 28, 2021. 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
3225-443: The bill into law on June 22, 1870. Grant appointed Amos T. Akerman as attorney general and Benjamin H. Bristow as America's first solicitor general the same week that Congress created the Department of Justice. The Department's immediate function was to preserve civil rights. It set about fighting against domestic terrorist groups who had been using both violence and litigation to oppose the 13th , 14th , and 15th Amendments to
3300-542: The case of the Federal Circuit, subject-specific) jurisdiction of that court. The reasons for why a denial of certiorari cannot be treated as implicit approval were set forth in Maryland v. Baltimore Radio Show, Inc. (1950), in which the Court explained the many rationales which could underlie the denial of a writ which have nothing to do with the merits of the case. Some United States state court systems use
3375-558: The courts of England and Wales, the remedy of certiorari evolved into a general remedy for the correction of plain error , to bring decisions of an inferior court, tribunal, or public authority before the superior court for review so that the court can determine whether to quash such decisions. Reflecting this evolution in usage as a remedy after judicial review nullifying a decision of a public body, in England and Wales, orders or writs of certiorari were renamed " quashing orders " by
3450-412: The decision does not pass the test, it is quashed – that is to say, it is declared completely invalid, so that no one need respect it. The underlying policy is that all inferior courts and authorities have only limited jurisdiction or powers and must be kept within their legal bounds. This is the concern of the Crown, for the sake of orderly administration of justice, but it is a private complaint which sets
3525-489: The decisions of the courts of appeals at its discretion through writ of certiorari . Since the Judiciary Act of 1925 and the Supreme Court Case Selections Act of 1988, most cases cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States as a matter of right. A party who wants the Supreme Court to review a decision of a federal or state court files a "petition for writ of certiorari" in
3600-521: The discharge of that duty; the justices of that Court appeared to have no discretion as to whether it was heard, as long as an application for a bill of certiorari met established criteria, as it arose from their duty of supervision. As time went on, certiorari evolved into an important rule of law remedy: Certiorari is used to bring up into the High Court the decision of some inferior tribunal or authority in order that it may be investigated. If
3675-466: The distractions, springing from these different and contradictory rules, would be without remedy and without end. Opposite determinations of the same question, in different courts, would be equally final and irreversible. In the United States, certiorari is most often seen as the writ that the Supreme Court of the United States issues to a lower court to review the lower court's judgment for legal error ( reversible error ) and review where no appeal
3750-430: The district of the Court of Appeals in which it was decided, or binding precedent for the entire state. In contrast, California, Florida, and New York solved the problem of creating uniform precedent by simply holding that the first intermediate appellate court to reach a novel question of law always sets binding precedent for the entire state, unless and until another intermediate appellate court expressly disagrees with
3825-457: The federal government in almost every Supreme Court case in which the United States is a party and also represents in most cases in which the government has filed a brief as amicus curiae . In the United States courts of appeals , the solicitor general's office 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
SECTION 50
#17327723616603900-420: The federal judicial system became increasingly strained, and the Supreme Court had a backlog of cases several years long. The Act solved these problems by transferring most of the court's direct appeals to the newly created circuit courts of appeals , whose decisions in those cases would normally be final. The Supreme Court did not completely give up its judiciary authority because it gained the ability to review
3975-401: The first one. Meanwhile, some states, such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey , avoid the issue entirely by eschewing regionalized appellate courts; the intermediate appellate courts in these states may hear cases from all parts of the state within their subject-matter jurisdiction. In the administrative law context, the common-law writ of certiorari was historically used by lower courts in
4050-578: The fundamental rights, in addition to the certiorari power of the Supreme Court. In addition to the power to issue certiorari to protect fundamental rights, the Supreme Court and the High Courts all have jurisdiction to issue certiorari for the protection of other legal rights. When the Supreme Court of New Zealand was established a superior court in 1841, it had inherent jurisdiction to issue certiorari to control inferior courts and tribunals. The common law jurisdiction to issue certiorari
4125-466: The lower court to stand without review; it takes roughly 80 to 150 cases each term. In the term that concluded in June 2009, for example, 8,241 petitions were filed, with a grant rate of approximately 1.1 percent. Cases on the paid certiorari docket are substantially more likely to be granted than those on the in forma pauperis docket. The Supreme Court is generally careful to choose only cases over which
4200-408: The office of the Attorney General. The office of the attorney general was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 as a part-time job for one person, but grew with the bureaucracy . At one time, the attorney general gave legal advice to the U.S. Congress , as well as the president ; however, in 1819, the attorney general began advising Congress alone to ensure a manageable workload. Until 1853,
4275-487: The original intended meaning of the Latin motto appearing on the Department of Justice seal, Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur (literally "Who For Lady Justice Strives"). It is not even known exactly when the original version of the DOJ seal itself was adopted, or when the motto first appeared on the seal. The most authoritative opinion of the DOJ suggests that the motto refers to the Attorney General (and thus, by extension, to
4350-687: The president's Cabinet . The current attorney general is Merrick Garland , who has served since March 2021. The Justice Department contains most of the United States' federal law enforcement agencies , including the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the U.S. Marshals Service , the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives , the Drug Enforcement Administration , and the Federal Bureau of Prisons . The department also has eight divisions of lawyers who represent
4425-415: The remainder of the current Supreme Court term. The Supreme Court has also occasionally invited a state attorney general to express a view on a petition related to that state. In 2009, for the first time, the invitation was directed instead to a state solicitor general, James Ho of Texas, earning the request the nickname "CVSG-Texas." Several traditions have developed since the Office of Solicitor General
4500-629: The ringleaders were imprisoned for up to five years in the federal penitentiary in Albany, New York . The result was a dramatic decrease in violence in the South. Akerman gave credit to Grant and told a friend that no one was "better" or "stronger" than Grant when it came to prosecuting terrorists. George H. Williams , who succeeded Akerman in December 1871, continued to prosecute the Klan throughout 1872 until
4575-478: 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. When determining whether to grant certiorari in
SECTION 60
#17327723616604650-412: The salary of the attorney general was set by statute at less than the amount paid to other Cabinet members. Early attorneys general supplemented their salaries by running private law practices, often arguing cases before the courts as attorneys for paying litigants. The lightness of the office is exemplified by Edward Bates (1793–1869), Attorney General under Abraham Lincoln (1861 to 1864). Bates had only
4725-467: The same terminology, but in others, writ of review , leave to appeal , or certification for appeal is used in place of writ of certiorari as the name for discretionary review of a lower court's judgment. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania uniquely uses the terms allocatur (informally) and "allowance of appeal" (formally) for the same process. A handful of states lack intermediate appellate courts; in most of these, their supreme courts operate under
4800-472: The solicitor general's office treats it as tantamount to a command. Philip Elman , who served as an attorney in the solicitor general's office and who was the 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." The Court typically issues
4875-436: The spring of 1873, during Grant's second term in office. Williams then placed a moratorium on Klan prosecutions partially because the Justice Department, inundated by cases involving the Klan, did not have the manpower to continue prosecutions. The "Act to Establish the Department of Justice" drastically increased the attorney general's responsibilities to include the supervision of all United States attorneys, formerly under
4950-478: The state supreme court from having to hear relatively minor cases just to create uniform statewide precedents on those issues, it also makes for lengthy citations to the opinions of the Courts of Appeals, since the subsequent writ history of the case must always be noted (e.g., no writ, writ refused, writ denied, etc.) in order for the reader to determine at a glance whether the cited opinion is binding precedent only in
5025-406: The use of certiorari in criminal matters. It ruled that certiorari can only be used to correct jurisdictional errors, i.e. when a court makes a decision that is out of its power to make; it cannot be used to correct legal errors, i.e. where a court makes a decision it is allowed to make, but decides incorrectly. The latter type of error can only be challenged through an appeal, once the court makes
5100-403: The use of the new application for review, the writs would cease to be used. The Philippines has adapted the extraordinary writ of certiorari in civil actions under its Rules of Court , as the procedure to seek judicial review from the Supreme Court of the Philippines . As Associate Justice James Wilson (1742–1798), the person primarily responsible for the drafting of Article Three of
5175-630: The vast majority of cases beginning in 2004, while West Virginia transitioned to mandatory review for all cases beginning in 2010. Texas is an unusual exception to the rule that denial of certiorari by the state supreme court normally does not imply approval or disapproval of the merits of the lower court's decision. In March 1927, the Texas Legislature enacted a law directing the Texas Supreme Court to summarily refuse to hear applications for writs of error when it believed
5250-474: The words used at the beginning of these writs when they were written in Latin: certiorari [volumus] "[we wish] to be made more certain". Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin verb certioro, certiorare ("to inform, apprise, show"). It is often abbreviated cert. in the United States, particularly in relation to applications to the Supreme Court of the United States for review of
5325-425: Was completed in 1935 from a design by Milton Bennett Medary . Upon Medary's death in 1929, the other partners of his Philadelphia firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary took over the project. On a lot bordered by Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues and Ninth and Tenth Streets, Northwest, it holds over 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m ) of space. Various efforts, none entirely successful, have been made to determine
5400-526: 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 on other than an acting basis, elected to forgo the practice. During oral argument, the members of the Court often address the solicitor general as "General," Some legal commentators such as Michael Herz and Timothy Sandefur have disagreed with this usage, saying that "general"
5475-615: Was established in 1924. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order which gave the Department of Justice responsibility for the "functions of prosecuting in the courts of the United States claims and demands by, and offsenses [ sic ] against, the Government of the United States, and of defending claims and demands against the Government, and of supervising the work of United States attorneys, marshals, and clerks in connection therewith, now exercised by any agency or officer..." The U.S. Department of Justice building
5550-559: Was modified by statute in 1972, when the New Zealand Parliament passed the Judicature Amendment Act . This Act created a new procedural mechanism, known as an "application for review", which could be used in place of certiorari and the other prerogative writs. The Judicature Amendment Act did not abolish certiorari and the other writs, but it was expected that as the legal profession adapted to
5625-562: 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. 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
#659340