When Trump’s Solicitor General Talks, Justices Listen

ever been. Joining me is Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson, Bloomberg Law Editor. So, Kimberly, no Francisco is the current Solicitor General. Start by explaining a little about the role of the s G, especially with regard to what's called c v s g S short for Call for the Views of the Solicitor General. Right. Well, as you mentioned Noel Francisco is the current Solicitor General, that he's a former partner at the big law firm of Jones Day, where a lot of Trump administration officials

have come from. And as you said, they're really the administration's top lawyer at the U. S. Supreme Court, and they oversee other litigation um as it's working its way through the federal courts, and it has the relationship of trust with the Supreme Court. And one of the ways that we see this relationship play out is through these cvs g s or calls for the views of the

Solicitor General. And what will happen in these cases if the justices will ask the Solicitor General and his office to weigh in on whether or not a court should take up a case or whether or not it should let it pass, and we see some remarkable agreement between the justices and the solicitor generals. This term um when it comes to those suggestions, you write that the office of the Solicitor General has an almost perfect record this term when it comes to these recommendations. Tell us about

the numbers and how that compares to the prior administration. Right, Well, we're seeing an increase in these cvs g s, meaning presumably that the court is relying or on the office than it has in previous decades. And so now we get cbs g's about two dozen times a term. A lot of them stack up at the end of the term, so about half of the Solicitor General's recommendations are still outstanding.

But in ten of eleven recommendations that the Office has made so far this term, the Supreme Court has agreed. We'll see as the Court approaches the end of this term if that will stick. But overall, in the three years that the administration has been replying to these cvs g's, the administration has been doing very well. It's somewhere in nine where it's historically it's been closer to and under Obama it reaches as low as sixty five percent. If you get sixty of a windstrink in the Supreme Court,

that's a pretty good day. But as I mentioned, it has been higher in other administrations that it was under Obama. In general, has the s G been recommending taking cases with controversial issues or turning them away? Mostly turning them away, And that's historically the practice of the Solicitor General is to be more risk averse and not suggests that the Supreme Court spend a lot of its time on certain cases.

I would note one particular CBSG that the Court is still considering has to do with Sudan and terrorism and what damages individuals can get, and that will be an interesting one that the Solicitor General has recommended that the Justices do take up during their next term. So why this deference to the Solicitor General with this particular court. Well, of course, all of this is happening through briefs at the Court and no one's actually sitting down and really

having in conversations, So we just have to speculate. But we have a some good idea that it may have to do with the converging ideologies. Not only is the Solicitor General's office getting more conservative, but so are the Justices and that may indicate that, you know, they see eye to eye with the Solicitor General on what kinds of cases and what kinds of issues the Supreme Court be tackling right now. Is that winning streak of the Solicitor General any indication of how the Court will rule

in those cases? Well, it can and it can't be. Um, you know, looking at these CDs g's is just one measure of how much the Justices are relying on the Solicitor General and the Trump administration. But even by other measures, we see the Trump administration doing very well. And so I mentioned that the Obama administration didn't do very well in CBS g's but they didn't actually do very well in straight wins and losses, although they want a lot

of high profile cases. But the Trump administration is doing much better. Indeed, already for this term, they've got a seventy win streak, and that's that's pretty good at the U s. Supreme Court, I would say so. Now, the Solicitor General has also tried to circumvent the rules a little and get the Supreme Court to fast track several cases.

How successful has that been, Well, that's been more of a mixed bag, and that seems somewhat contrary to what we've been talking about with the Justices really relying on the Solicitor General's office. But one court watcher that I talked to pointed out that the Trump administration is doing

things a little bit more unusually than other administrations. And so while they've been turned away a lot by the Supreme Court in these requests to kind of skip over the lower courts, they've also had a lot more granted in their favor. You say that the Justices are going to be considering more of the recommendations before the term wraps up. Tell us about a yet unscheduled mop up conference. Because I love that idea. A mop up conference at

the Supreme Court. Right, Well, if you were to look at the Supreme Court schedule, you would think that there are only two more days where the Court is going to hand down opinions and only one more day where they're going to meet in a private conference and chat about what cases they should take up for next term. But actually it's a little bit more secretive than that.

The court watchers know that the Court typically adds an extra conference day right at the very end of their term so that they can clean up any outstanding cases that they want to get going before they take a break for the summertime and get briefing off and rolling so they're ready for the next term when it comes around in October. The Solicitor of General does he argue all the cases that the Supreme Court hears that the

administration has a part in. Well. The Solicitor General's office is made up of a number of career attorneys as well as some political appointees, and individuals from that office will argue not only in cases where the administration is a party, but also where they're acting as a friend of the court. That is where they'll pick one party and they'll argue on their behalf in support of their

side of the case. And so the Solicitor General usually argues some of the most important and consequential cases, but his office is involved in many, many cases at the court. I think this term it's well over thirty cases that have already been decided that his office has participated in

and only ted where they weren't involved at all. And we're coming up to the end of the term, so we're gonna be hearing about a lot of the controversial cases as well that this listener General has been involved in. Thanks so much, Kimberly, very interesting article. That's Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson, Bloomberg Law Editor. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts,

SoundCloud and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso. This is Bloomberg