ABSTRACT
The US Solicitor General's Office is headed by the fourth-highest-ranking lawyer in the United States, and he is the official representative of the executive branch before US Supreme Court. He has a highly salient, unique, and special relationship with the nation's highest court. The solicitor general has four central functions at the Supreme Court level. First, the office determines whether the federal government should appeal cases lost in lower federal courts to the Supreme Court. Second, the solicitor general acts as a gatekeeper, who argues for or against full review of cases appealed to the Court. Third, he argues cases as a direct party. Fourth, he files amici curiae briefs as a third party, especially when the Supreme Court requests his opinion on important constitutional and statutory issues. As a litigant or amicus curiae at the full review stage, the solicitor general wins more frequently than other litigants.
