This is Bloomberg Law with June Brusso from Bloomberg Radio.
We'll hear argument this morning in case twenty two to fifty eight United States versus Texas. General preliguard, mister Chief Justice, and may it please the Court. There are more than eleven million removable non citizens in this country and DHS has about six thousand interior enforcement officers. To focus the agency's limited resources on threats to public safety, national security, and border security, DHS adopted enforcement priorities, but the district
Court issued a sweeping ruling vacating the guidelines nationwide. This court should reverse.
And the court did reverse, allowing the Biden administration to shift the government's immigration enforcement priorities. It was one of the eight cases that Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelager argued at the Supreme Court last term, trying to convince at least five of the nine justices to sode with the government, a task that's gotten tougher with a conservative led court less inclined to sod with the Biden administration and willing
to overturn president. But in the case of United States versus Texas, pre Lager managed to convince eight of the nine justices joining me is Lydia Wheeler, Bloomberg Law Senior reporter. Let's start on a personal note. Lawyers are often creatures of habit with rituals before trials or arguments, and pre Lager has a breakfast ritual.
So Supreme Court argument days always start out the same. For the blister General, Elizabeth Prelagger, she eats five or six bananas, if you can believe it, in the morning for breakfast. She said this while she was speaking recently in May, she gave a public appearance at a Circuit Court conference, and she says that it is a really good
breakfast to calm your nerves. From what I've heard from others is there's apparently some natural beta blockers in bananas that help with anxiety and nervous So that's her routine.
So the introduction is very short before they start hammering you with questions. And she tries that out on her preteen sons.
Yeah, that's right. So they only get a couple of minutes to kind of kick off their arguments uninterrupted, you know, before the justices start jumping in with question when you're arguing before the court. So the splitter General said that she in preparing for her argument. The day before the argument, she tries to cut her day off kind of at a normal business hour and go home and have dinner
with her family. And then when dinner's done, she said, she practices her opening arguments in front of her sons, who at the time in May, we're nine and twelve. And then they rate her. She said, you know, just go one to ten on how well she's done. And so she doesn't always get a ten. I think, she said, like the last time they raid her, she got a seven.
Well, they're pretty good if they're understanding those at that age. So for those who may not be familiar with the office of the solicitor General, tell us why the solicitor general is sometimes referred to as the tenth justice.
Right, So, the solicitor General's job is to be the one who represents the federal government and court at the Supreme Court specifically, so that is the person who's defending the administration against challenges to their policies. They also jump
in kind of to other arguments. Sometimes they're asked by the court kind of what are their views on the challenge and that they may not be involved in, and so they're seen as being kind of above the fray, above the political partisanship, and so that's why they're often referred to as the tenth Justice. And that makes the job pretty difficult, right, because you have to think about your objectives in the immediate but also the government's long term interest.
This court is very conservative, as a super conservative majority. Does that make her job more difficult when she's advocating for the Biden administration?
Absolutely. You know, my colleague Kimberly Robinson and I chatted with people who have held this post before, and we chatted with people who have worked for and with this lister General, and they all have agreed that this is a difficult job that's gotten even tougher with a course
that's dominated six to three by conservatives. And these are conservatives who have not only shown us that they're willing to overturn Supreme Court precedent, but also these are conservatives who seem deeply skeptical of what they view as the administration's aggressive use of executive power when there is an express authorization from Congress to take certain actions.
And she can't make inconsistent arguments or burn bridges because she knows she'll be back again arguing before them.
That's right. That's what makes this job kind of tough, right, is that she has to be strategic and find the winning arguments that are going to you know, maybe squeak out a win where she can without kind of creating roadblocks for the government in the future. You know, one argument that they might want to put forward and to win one case might not work later on, or you know, might come back to bite them. So she has to be very careful all about the arguments that she's presenting.
And you know, surprisingly, despite all the challenges that she's facing, she was able to sweak out some surprising victories this term. You know, she ended the court with a foreign four record.
I was looking at that foreign four record. How do people view that? Because you know, it's a draw.
I mean, I think that some people thought that it was better than what they had anticipated. But you know, some legal scholars that I spoke with said that that's really indicative of how people view the court. You know, given the conservative makeup, is that people think that if, oh, the Biden administration's attorneys before the court, they're never going to win. Right. Well, Elizabeth Prelauger showed us that that's
not always the case, you know. And then there were cases where although they look like it's a loss to her and we count them as a loss, she was able to kind of stop the court from going farther than it could have. And I think that that really speaks to kind of how talented she is in this role. We heard from people who have worked with her work for her, who just say that in an office where there's exemplary attorneys, that Elizabeth Prelager is kind of a star amongst ours.
So she lost some big cases, like affirmative action in Biden's student loan program, but then again she won some big cases.
That's right. You know, the court sided with her in rejecting a Republican backed effort to give state legislatures and here exclusive authority to step federal election rules. You know, that case was known as Moore versus Harper, and court watchers were really worried about it because it had the potential to really kind of wreck havoc on federal election rules and really changed the twenty twenty four election results.
And then there was another case where you know, she lost ultimately in fighting for President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. But you'll remember that there were two cases against that, and she convinced the court to toss out one of those challenges. But that was technically a win. That was a challenge that student loan borrowers had brought against the plan, and she had argued that they didn't have the required in injury to bring their lawsuit in court, and the
court unanimously agreed with her on that one. There are other wins too, you know, she scored victories when the court let the Biden administration shift its immigration policies, and also when it upheld a lower court's decision that requires Alabama to draw a second majority black congressional district. So that was a voting rights case that really threatened Voting Rights Act that she was able to win. There.
Tough job, It's an uphill battle every time.
Yeah, let's talk.
About her background. I was surprised to learn she has a master's degree in creative writing, which may be helpful in some of these cases.
But I think it is you know, a lot of people spoke to the fact that she is a really talented writer here. You know, when she spoke at that conference in May and Philadelphia, as she actually said she thought she was going to go into journalism. That was a career path that she thought that she was headed for. Before Harvard, she.
Clerk for both the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Elena Kagan, and they said she was one of the best law clerks had.
Yeah, that's right. So she had the rarity where she clerked for not only one, but two Supreme Court justices. She also clerked for Merrik Garland, who was at the time a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. And when she was applying for her role in this Blister General's office, Donald Verilli, who also served as the Blister General, you know, he hired her to that office
in an assistant capacity. And he said that he actually got phone calls from both of the justices, both Ginsburg and Kagan, called him and said, you know, hey, you have to hire her. You couldn't possibly do any better. She's one of the best law clerks that we've ever had.
And you know, I spoke with another attorney who also had hired Elizabeth Prelagger in private practice, and he said that he had also received a phone call from Justice Ginsberg, who at the time had said that Elizabeth Prelagger was the best law that she had ever had in I think some thirty years.
Hi praise you write that the same word was used over and over to describe her. Unflappable.
Yeah. Absolutely. An interview after interview after interview that we did to learn about her and her record and what she's like, the same word kept coming up time and again. And you know, people say that she's just someone who's kind of unshaken. You know, she has an incredible talent to answer the justices questions and to go before a course that's sometimes seen as pretty hostile, you know, to the positions that she's putting forth, and that she's just
completely unshaken. You know, I chatted with this woman who worked as a Bristow fellow in the office of Splitter General and she said that, you know, she worked under Elizabeth Prelager and said that she never saw her get stressed. You know, everybody gets stressed out and gosh, the Blister General's job is so stressful. But you know, she said that Elizabeth Prelober is very good at not showing that and also not letting that stress trickle down to the staff below her.
I hadn't realized this, but when she started as Solicitor General last term, her first challenge was the abortion arguments, which you know, we know were the most high profile of that term and perhaps the most high profile of many terms.
That's right. She got thrown right into the deep end for sure on that one. Within days of being confirmed to the office, she was before the court arguing, you know, Texas had tried to put forward a law that banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Now this is prior to the Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion, so this was really seen as kind of one of the biggest abortion fights that had reached the Supreme Court at
that time. And the law, as I mentioned, banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, but also had kind of this novel enforcement aspect to it. It left private citizens to kind of call people in and you know, cattle almost And so she was thrown right into the deep end there to argue against that law and to try to convince the justices not to let challenges against it go forward. And so she ultimately lost that one, but you know, she went on to argue many more cases
of significance that term. Last term, there was a lot of cases challenging the COVID policies, so she had a lot of those as well. There was people that we talked to that said that they can't think of a solicter general with so many high stakes challenges, you know, right off the bat.
So this is such a high profile legal job, one of the most high profile in the legal profession. Are the opportunities after she leaves the office sort of endless.
It seems that way for sure. I think, you know, Elizabeth Prelaber has her pick of jobs if she decides to leave the Solister General's office. I've chatted with people who said that a lot of former sgs, you know, end up in private practice. Some of them, though, go on to big roles. You think of William Howard task before he was president, he served as Solicitor General. There's also been former sds that have gone on to be presidents of universities. So it depends on what she wants
to do. You know, she is the second woman confirmed to this role. The first was the justice that she clerked for, Justice Olena came So many see this as a pathway to the federal bench, either on a district a pellet or even the Supreme Court. You know, there are many people that say they'd like to see her on the Supreme Court and that could be a real possibility for her in the future.
You talked to Neil Katyall who was the former Acting Solicitor General, so he said that she has a place at Hogan Levels, which is the firm that he's at.
That's right, So, you know, he had said that he wants her back. You know, he hired her originally, so she did a stint in private practice before the Splister General's office, and he said that he'd love to have her back. And I said, well, have you talked to her about that? He said, oh, of course not. You know, I can't I can't do that, that would be inappropriate. But I hope she knows, you know.
Yeah.
So I think all the top firms that have specific practices in Supreme Court advocacy will be vying for her because she does have the stellar reputation in arguing before the Supreme Court. So he said he wants her back, but he also said, you know, I'd like to see her, you know, on the Supreme Court giving some touristeners o all a hard time. So we'll have to see what she chooses to do. But I think she is definitely someone to watch.
And she's so young to be in this position.
Forty three, right, Yeah, that's pretty young for veteran Supreme Court advocacy standards. So she's really made her way already at such a short time, and I think she has a long career ahead of her, and so it'll be really interesting to see what she does next.
It's a really interesting story. Thanks so much, Lydia. That's Bloomberg Law Senior reporter Lydia Wheeler, and that's it for this edition of The Bloomberg Law Show. Remember you can always get the latest legal news on our Bloomberg Law podcast. You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at www dot Bloomberg dot com, slash podcast Slash Law, and remember to tune into The Bloomberg Law Show every weeknight at ten pm Wall Street Time. I'm June Grosso, and you're listening to Bloomberg