Amy Howe

Mar 8 2017

Trump to nominate Francisco to serve as solicitor general

President Donald Trump has announced that he plans to nominate Noel Francisco, who is currently serving as the acting solicitor general after originally being named the principal deputy solicitor general, to serve as the solicitor general. The announcement comes nearly a month after Charles Cooper, a prominent Washington lawyer who was regarded as the front runner to fill the slot, announced that he was withdrawing from consideration.

Before joining the Trump administration, Francisco was a partner in the Washington office of Jones Day. During his stint in private practice, he argued several high-profile cases at the court, including Governor Robert McDonnell’s successful challenge to his bribery conviction, a bottling company’s challenge to the constitutionality of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, and a challenge to the accommodation offered by the federal government to religious nonprofits that objected to providing their female employees with health insurance that includes access to certain forms of birth control. Before joining Jones Day, Francisco served in the George W. Bush administration, in both the White House and the Office of Legal Counsel.

Jeffrey Wall, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, will be named the principal deputy solicitor general. Wall has argued at the court 11 times, both while in private practice and in his prior job as an assistant to the solicitor general.

Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
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