After critics panned his most important SCOTUS argument, solicitor general learned this lesson
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. Photo from the Department of Justice.
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli says he “felt like the roof had caved in on me” after journalists derided his argument defending the Affordable Care Act in March 2012.
Jeffrey Toobin of CNN said Verrilli’s argument was “a train wreck for the Obama administration,” while Adam Liptak of the New York Times said Verrilli “got off to a rocky start and never seemed to quite find his footing.”
Now, as Verrilli plans to leave the job on June 24, he tells the New York Times that there was a reason for the rocky start. His voice was shot from frequent practice sessions, and he took a sip of water as the argument began. “It went down the wrong way, and I couldn’t get any words out,” Verrilli tells the newspaper. “It affected my concentration. I definitely lost my concentration at the beginning of the argument.”
Verrilli ultimately won the case when the Supreme Court ruled Congress had the power to adopt the law’s insurance mandate under its taxing power.
Verrilli said the criticism taught him an important lesson. “It’s not a good or healthy thing to have your sense of self-worth determined by what other people are saying,” he said. “I wish I’d learned that before I was in my mid-50s but, you know, it helped a lot to learn it.”
Verrilli has also “become a devotee of throat lozenges” and always pops one in his mouth before arguments begin.
