Rex E. Lee Conference on the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States: Panel for Former Solicitors General

Abstract

I agree entirely that the chain of command is clear and that the Framers managed to make it all the way through all the articles of the Constitution without even conceiving of a solicitor general, let alone bothering to mention an attorney general. It is important nonetheless to distinguish between those things the solicitor general does pursuant to the longstanding notice-and-comment regulation, and the other things a solicitor general may do pursuant to his (and, someday, her!) statutory obligation to be of general assistance to the attorney general