Orrin Hatch: “I rise to pay tribute to the service of Paul Clement, who recently stepped down as our Nation's 43rd Solicitor General.…”

“I rise to pay tribute to the service of Paul Clement, who recently stepped down as our Nation's 43rd Solicitor General. Paul served in that office for more than 7 years, first as Principal Deputy to Solicitor General Ted Olson, then as Acting Solicitor General, and for three years as Solicitor General. He is a good man and an excellent lawyer who was a great Solicitor General. Before speaking about Paul, let me first say a few words about the office in which he served. Congress created the Department of Justice and the position of Solicitor General in 1870. Since then, the Solicitor General is the only Federal Government officer actually required by statute to be 'learned in the law.' As Paul put it during his confirmation hearing in April 2005, the Solicitor General sits literally at the crossroads of the separation of powers. He is an executive branch official who defends the actions of the executive and legislative branches before the judicial branch. Today, the Solicitor General represents the United States before the Supreme Court and manages the United States' participation in thousands of lower court cases. That means he must make decisions in individual cases with reference to past positions taken by the United States and vigilance about how current positions may affect the future. Such a constant, and constantly changing, set of factors makes the Solicitor General's job something like the courtroom version of multi-dimensional chess.”