State Solicitors General on the Move

At the end of November, Tony Mauro posted a story for The National Law Journal on President Trump’s newly announced potential Supreme Court nominees.  The list adds five new names to Trumps list.  Three of the individuals–Britt Grant, Kevin Newsom, and Patrick Wyrick–all served as state solicitors general.  Mauro notes that two of the individuals on Trump’s original list–Allison Eid and Tim Tymkovich–also served as state SGs.

As Mauro notes, at least 39 states now have a state solicitor general.  State SGs are increasingly arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court, and they are moving from their SG role to important positions in the judiciary.  Newson, Eid, and Tymkovich are all federal appellate judges.  Kyle Duncan and James Ho, two of President Trump’s Fifth Circuit nominees, are both former state SGs.  Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton was the Solicitor General for Ohio, and his role in that office served as a model for other state SG positions. According to biographical data on the Federal Judicial Center website, several other federal judges, both past and present, have served as state SGs–Gary Feinerman (IL), Orrin Grimmell Judd (NY), Richard  House Kyle (MN), Thomas Lee (SC), Emory Speer (GA), John R. Tunheim (MN).  Several federal judges in Puerto Rico previously served as Solicitor General for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Moving to state supreme courts, several former state SGs serve on the highest court of their state, including Britt Grant (GA), Patrick Wyrick (OK), Nels Peterson (GA), and John Lopez (AZ).  I am sure that there are many others (feel free to let me know in comments!).

I am extremely interested in the role of state SGs both with respect to improving advocacy in the state and federal courts and promoting federalism. These individuals, often graduates of top national law schools, play an important role in our legal structure.  I suspect that we will continue to see presidents of both parties tap these individuals for federal judicial positions.