President Biden announced Wednesday that he has nominated Elizabeth B. Prelogar to serve on a permanent basis as solicitor general, the government’s top advocate at the Supreme Court, a position she has held on an acting basis since January.
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Prelogar, a veteran appellate attorney who served from 2014 to 2019 as assistant to the solicitor general and briefly as an adviser to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on the Russia investigation, would be the second woman to formally hold the position.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was the first, serving as solicitor general under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2010.
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Besides representing the government in individual cases, the solicitor general spearheads the administration’s broader Supreme Court strategy — helping to decide which cases to pursue, which to drop and which arguments to make. At a moment when liberals are on the defensive with a 3-to-6 minority on the court, such strategizing is all the more critical.
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The role is often referred to as that of the “10th justice.”
People familiar with the process said the administration initially approached another veteran of the office, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger. Kruger, who is also considered a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee, turned down the offer, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Prelogar has also worked as a partner at law firm Cooley LLP and as an associate at Hogan Lovells, and she taught a course at Harvard Law School on Supreme Court and appellate advocacy, the White House said in its announcement of Biden’s nomination.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Prelogar clerked for Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She also held clerkships for Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Kagan.