Amicus Curiae Briefs By the Solicitor General During the Warren and Burger Courts: a Research Note

HE solicitor general is the representative of the executive branch t before the Supreme Court of the United States. The office has four ~tL major functions: it screens losing cases involving the United States for review to the Supreme Court; it argues for or against review of cases not involving the United States to the Supreme Court; it argues cases for the United States as direct party before the Court; and it files amicus cur-iae briefs for litigants before the Court when the U.S. is not a direct party. This research note will examine the the solicitor general in its fourth stated role, amicus curiae. It will do so by updating and expanding upon the works by Scigliano ( 1971), Puro (1971, 1981), O’Connor (1983) and Ulmer and Willison (1985). As O’Connor has noted, the solicitor general’s amicus briefs have had a substantial effect on public policy, through without the scrutiny given other arenas in the political system (p. 264). Using the population of amicus briefs filed from 1953 until 1982, this paper will describe and explain the ideological direction of such briefs, the factors affecting the solicitors ’ success rates and the votes of the justices. DATA AND RESULTS Briefs Filed by the Solicitor General The data consist of every formally decided case in which the solici-tor general filed an amicus curiae brief on the merits with the Supreme Court between the 1953 and 1982 fall terms. ’ Cases were located through a case-by-case examination of the United States Reports. If the solicitor filed a brief for the petitioner or appellant, he is coded as winning if the Court reversed, reversed and remanded, vacated and remanded, or va-cated the lower court’s decision. If the solicitor filed a brief for the respon-dent or appellee, he is coded as winning if the Court affirmed the lower court’s decision or dismissed the appeal. Cases are treated as missing if