Many lawyers who argue for Trump at Supreme Court are heading for the exit
Solicitor General D. John Sauer during his earlier tenure as a private attorney to Donald Trump in January 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
At least half of the front-line lawyers in the elite Justice Department office that represents the Trump administration at the Supreme Court are preparing to leave or have already announced their departures—an unusually high amount of turnover at a time of intense litigation involving the president’s initiatives.
The people planning to leave the solicitor general’s office have various reasons, according to several people close to the workforce, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss upcoming personnel changes.
Many are uncomfortable or turned off by directives from Justice Department leaders, including Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demand for “zealous advocacy” of President Donald Trump’s agenda, these people said.
The planned departures, and the newly announced retirement of veteran Edwin S. Kneedler, come as the Trump administration has repeatedly asked the high court to clear the way for its efforts to dramatically reshape the federal government, expand immigration enforcement and halt federal spending.
The justices handed Trump a string of temporary, procedural victories over the past week in response to requests from the office. A divided court on Monday allowed the administration to use a wartime statute to try to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, though it said the migrants must have an opportunity to challenge their removals. On Tuesday, the court paused a judge’s order requiring the government to rehire thousands of probationary employees, and last week it said the government could freeze tens of millions of dollars in teacher training grants.
Attrition from the office also coincides with an abrupt restructuring in leadership following the arrival of Solicitor General D. John Sauer, who was confirmed by the Senate last week along party lines. Sauer successfully represented Trump at the Supreme Court last year in his case seeking broad presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts while in office.
The solicitor general is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the Justice Department, sometimes referred to as the “10th justice” because he or she is so often involved in the cases the court accepts.
In addition to presenting the government’s views at the court, the office develops the department’s broader appellate strategy. It has traditionally hired lawyers from politically diverse backgrounds to provide an array of legal perspectives.
The Trump administration’s demand for loyalty, as well as its removal of prosecutors and FBI officials deemed not supportive of the president’s agenda, go against that tradition, outside analysts said. So too does Trump’s directive that Bondi “seek sanctions” against attorneys and law firms that the administration believes are engaging in “frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation against the United States.”
Georgetown University law professor Steve Vladeck, who closely tracks the work of the court, said the solicitor general’s office has “spent its entire history building a reputation of trust and credibility that the Supreme Court relies upon and takes very seriously.”
“The question is, who is left?” Vladek said. “Who is going to argue against positions that might be good for team Trump but are inconsistent with the standards of the office—and potentially the long-term interests of the government?”
Asked through a spokesperson about the departures, Bondi defended the office in a statement: “As evidenced by this week’s significant victories at the Supreme Court, the Office of the Solicitor General led by John Sauer is staffed with brilliant and highly qualified attorneys to defend President Trump’s agenda and uphold the rule of law.”
Traditionally, all of the lawyers in the office except two—the solicitor general and his or her principal deputy—are nonpartisan career employees who span administrations, rather than political appointees. When the office takes legal positions, it has historically taken a long view about what is best for the U.S. government.
Attorney Sarah M. Harris, a former law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, filled the role of solicitor general temporarily in advance of Sauer’s confirmation. She then slid into the No. 2 spot.
This week, Sauer took the unusual step of bringing in Hashim M. Mooppan as a second principal deputy. Mooppan held high-level political appointments during the first Trump administration and has a similar legal pedigree to Sauer. Both were law clerks for the late Justice Antonin Scalia and the retired appeals court judge Michael Luttig. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to say whether the dual principal deputy structure would remain in coming weeks.
Some turnover in the office is not unusual when there is a change in administration, typically in May after oral arguments are completed for the term. But the anticipated number of departures among the 16 assistants—at least eight, by some counts—is significantly higher than normal, according to the people familiar with how the office works.
Those people said the exodus raises questions about whether the department will be able to recruit attorneys from top law schools with clerkship experience and diverse backgrounds at a time when the administration is rapidly filing emergency requests at the high court.
The lawyers who remain include veteran Malcolm Stewart and Curtis E. Gannon, another former Scalia clerk.
The office has already lost attorney Colleen Sinzdak, who argued 11 cases during her nearly six years in the office. Sinzdak clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and former attorney general Merrick Garland during his tenure on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Separately, Kneedler announced his retirement from the office after 46 years. He has served as deputy solicitor general, a career civil service position that endures from one administration to the next, and argued more than 150 cases at the high court during his tenure. He is known as the conscience of the office because of his advocacy among his colleagues for taking positions in the best interest of the government.
“For decades, he has been the office’s institutional memory, the keeper of its core values, a wise counselor to countless members of the office, a role model to Department lawyers, and a valued personal friend to his colleagues,” said Michael Dreeben, a veteran of the office who also served as a deputy solicitor general and represented the federal government in more than 100 cases.
Kneedler defended President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and worked on a range of cases involving separation of powers and most of the court’s cases involving Native Americans. He will be honored this week at his alma mater, the University of Virginia Law School.
While in the office, he overlapped with three future Supreme Court justices. Kneedler worked on briefs and legal strategy with Roberts, mentored Samuel A. Alito Jr. and helped Elena Kagan prepare for her first court argument.
“Whenever Ed is on the brief or is arguing, I know—and I won’t speak for my colleagues, but I bet they all feel the same way—we’re getting the best possible argument that can be made for the position that he is defending,” Alito told The Washington Post in 2014.
Alice Crites contributed to this report.
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