“When we're not a party, we sometimes file as amicus, as friend of the court, 25, 30 times a term, sometimes more. And in each of those cases, we've got to decide what position the government's going to take. And that is the solicitor general's job to make that decision.” SometimesGovernmentJobsTermDecisionPartyCasesPositionCourtFilesSolicitors Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
“The cases involving the question of whether U.S. courts should be open to claims of international human rights violations brought by foreign persons against foreign government officials. And the State Department on the one side has got a very consistent and powerful view that U.S. courts should be open to those claims because there needs to be a place in the world where they can be brought. And those human rights norms ought to be real and enforceable, and we ought to be a beacon to the world.” WorldNeedsShouldHumansPersonsRealStatesGovernmentSidesViewsPowerfulCasesRightsOughtClaimsCourtInternationalHuman RightsOfficialsDepartmentConsistentBeing RealNormViolationInvolvingPlaces In The WorldBeaconsGovernment Officials Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
“There was only really one time that I had a substantive interaction with the president [Barak Obama] directly, and that was in 2013 when we were deciding whether to file a brief in the first gay marriage case, the Perry against Hollingsworth case. That was a weighty decision about whether the United States government was going to come in and say that heightened scrutiny ought to apply and some state bans on same-sex marriage ought to be unconstitutional. And that was the one time in my tenure where I thought I ought not make this decision without talking to the president.” FirstsStatesGovernmentSexPresidentDecisionUnitedTalkingCasesUnited StatesOughtGayOne TimeInteractionGay MarriageFilesBansScrutinyState GovernmentTenureUnconstitutionalUnited States GovernmentBarak Obama Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
“I did think Justice [Antony] Kennedy's opinion on Lawrence was critical to that because it really, what Lawrence in one sense was, of course, about consensual sex being something that the government can't regulate. But really in a more fundamental sense, what it was saying, "Look. Gay people are normal people, and they get to live normal lives. They're not criminals by virtue of the fact of being gay."” PeopleThinkingLooksFactsGovernmentCoursesSexJusticeOpinionVirtueGayNormalFundamentalsCriticalCriminalsGay PeopleNormal LifeBeing GayAntony Author:Donald Verrilli Jr.
