The Interests of the United States, the Solicitor General and Individual Rights

Abstract

In view of these competing demands upon my role as Solicitor General, I am required to address individual rights concerns in a way that differs certainly from the approach I took as a private civil rights attorney and even that as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. But, since I am charged with "seeing to the interests of the United States" in the courts, l have endeavored not to lose sight of the fact that those "interests" must include not only those of the federal government in its corporate capacity but of the American people as well. That is, I must make every effort to ensure that the positions of the United States in the courts are sensitive to the degree to which laws improperly enforced do a disservice to the government and to the Nation as a whole. Here are a few examples of what can be done.