The Solicitor General is the only officer of the United States required by statute to be "learned in the law."(3) He is one of only two people (the other being the Vice President) with formal offices in two branches of government.(4) And perhaps more than any other position in government, the Solicitor General has important traditions of deference to all three branches.
The Solicitor General is of course an Executive Branch officer, reporting to the Attorney General, and ultimately to the President, in whom our Constitution vests all of the Executive power of the United States. Yet as the officer charged with, among other things, representing the interests of the United States in the Supreme Court, the position carries with it responsibilities to the other branches of government as well. As a result, by long tradition the Solicitor General has been accorded a large degree of independence.
To the Congress, Solicitors General have long assumed the responsibility, except in rare instances, of defending the constitutionality of enactments, so long as a defense can reasonably be made.(5) With respect to the Supreme Court, the Solicitor General has often been called "the Tenth Justice."(6) But alas, although I get to participate a lot, I do not get a vote (and in some important cases I could really use one). No, the Solicitor General's special relationship to the Court is not one of privilege, but of duty -- to respect and honor the principle of stare decisis, to exercise restraint in invoking the Court's jurisdiction, and to be absolutely scrupulous in every representation made. As one of my predecessors, Simon Sobeloff, once described the mission of the office:
The Solicitor General is not a neutral, he is an advocate; but an advocate for a client whose business is not merely to prevail in the instant case. My client's chief business is not to achieve victory, but to establish justice.(7)