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| June 20th, 2008 |
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Media Contact(s): Mark Eddington or Lindsey Stimpson, (202) 224-5251 |
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HATCH PAYS TRIBUTE TO OUTGOING SOLICITOR GENERAL PAUL CLEMENT
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WASHINGTON – Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today paid tribute on the Senate floor to Paul Clement, who recently stepped down as U.S. solicitor general.
“No one can turn a merely reasonable argument into a compelling argument better than Paul Clement,” Hatch told colleagues on the Senate floor. “Many who have seen him argue remark that though he speaks without notes, he has an astounding command of the facts and the law in each case.
“He has vigorously defended the legislation we have enacted on a wide range of issues, from the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and the ban on partial-birth abortion to the Solomon Amendment and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” Hatch added. “I would be surprised if any of my colleagues voted for every piece of legislation Paul has defended before the Supreme Court. I know I have not. But in every case, Paul upheld the highest standards of his office by diligently defending the work of the legislative branch.”
Sen. Hatch’s complete remarks follow:
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 seven 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.
Because of his special relationship with the Supreme Court, the Solicitor General is often referred to as the Tenth Justice.
Because of its astounding breadth and depth of experience and expertise, the Solicitor General’s office has been called the best law firm in America.
Paul Clement stands in a line of Solicitors General that includes some of the true giants in the law and in the service of our country. They include many who also served on the federal bench such as Supreme Court Chief Justices William Howard Taft and Charles Evans Hughes; Associate Justices Stanley Reed, Robert Jackson, and Thurgood Marshall; and Circuit Judges Kenneth Starr, Wade McCree, and Walter Cummings.
They include some of America’s most distinguished legal academics such as Walter Dellinger, the Maggs Professor of Law at Duke; the late Erwin Griswold, dean of Harvard Law School for 31 years; and the late Rex Lee, from my own state of Utah, who was the founding dean of the J. Reuben Clark School of Law at Brigham Young University.
Past Solicitors General also include those who would distinguish themselves in both the academic and judicial worlds such as Charles Fried, who has taught at Harvard Law School since 1961 and served on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts; and Robert Bork, who was the Bickel Professor of Public Law at Yale and served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Like Paul Clement, current Chief Justice John Roberts served as Principal Deputy Solicitor General.
Paul deserves to stand among such legends. A native of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, Paul graduated from the Cedarburg public schools and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a master’s degree with distinction from Cambridge University.
He then gave Harvard Law School a try and, sure enough, graduated from there magna cum laude after serving as Supreme Court editor of the Harvard Law Review to boot.
With that record, it is not surprising that he had the opportunity to clerk for truly great judges such as Judge Laurence Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who recently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
After a few years in private practice, Paul joined the United States Senate family as Chief Counsel of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism, and Property Rights, chaired by our former colleague and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
I chaired the Judiciary Committee at the time and remember Paul not only as a smart and hardworking lawyer but as a thoughtful, humble, and truly decent person.
It is easy to find someone with either professional talents or personal qualities, but a rare gift to have someone like Paul who has both.
After leaving the Senate, Paul returned to private practice and headed the appellate practice group of the distinguished law firm of King & Spalding before joining the Solicitor General’s office.
A far less impressive record spread over a lifetime would suffice for most, but Paul does not achieve the ripe old age of 42 until next week.
Three members of this body have been serving here since before Paul Clement was born.
Why, the Senator from West Virginia, Senator Byrd, was in his second term when young Paul came into the world.
The Senator from Paul’s home state of Wisconsin, Senator Feingold, my colleague on both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, introduced and praised Paul at his confirmation hearing. He noted that Paul he would be the youngest Solicitor General in more than 50 years and one of the youngest in American history. I do not want to belabor the point, but as I become a more seasoned citizen myself, I am impressed with how much some of these young people can accomplish.
Oh, I forgot one item on Paul’s jam-packed resume. Last September, Paul squeezed in a full 24 hours of service as Acting Attorney General. Fittingly, that was on September 17, which is the anniversary of both the Constitution’s signing and the confirmation of Paul’s former boss Justice Scalia to the Supreme Court. Paul has argued a total of 49 cases before the Supreme Court. I should perhaps say that he has so far argued 49 cases, as Paul may well return to the Supreme Court podium in the future.
It is the tradition and commitment of the Solicitor General to defend acts of Congress if there is a reasonable argument to do so.
No one can turn a merely reasonable argument into a compelling argument better than Paul Clement. Many who have seen him argue remark that though he speaks without notes, he has an astounding command of the facts and the law in each case.
He has vigorously defended the legislation we have enacted on a wide range of issues, from the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and the ban on partial-birth abortion to the Solomon Amendment and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I would be surprised if any of my colleagues voted for every piece of legislation Paul has defended before the Supreme Court. I know I have not. But in every case, Paul upheld the highest standards of his office by diligently defending the work of the legislative branch.
And while each Solicitor General faces unique challenges and special cases, Paul’s tenure coincided with the war on terror that we continue to fight.
He has confronted not only novel, complex, and serious legal issues, but he has borne the burden of knowing that his efforts will dramatically affect American lives, and indeed the American way of life itself.
Paul’s combination of experience allowed him to do some truly unique and things as Solicitor General. When he earlier served on the Judiciary Committee staff, for example, Paul worked hard on the development and passage of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. I introduced that legislation after the Supreme Court struck down previous efforts to protect religious liberty. The Senate unanimously passed the bill.
Then in 2005, as Solicitor General, Paul defended the constitutionality of that law and the Supreme Court unanimously upheld it. And in the case now before the Supreme Court regarding the District of Columbia’s ban on firearm possession, Paul argued before the Justice for whom he clerked regarding the opinion of the Circuit Judge for whom he clerked.
Some who have compiled such an amazing resume have taken much longer to do so.
Some who have done so quickly are, quite frankly, not nearly as decent and kind as Paul Clement.
He and his wife, Alexandra, have three wonderful children – Thomas Antonio, Theodore Gerald, otherwise known as Theo, and the youngest, Paul Gregory. The little one, called P.G., made his presence known at the opening of Paul’s confirmation hearing.
Youngsters are known to do that. We all remember Chief Justice Roberts’ son Jack doing the dance of joy when his father was sworn in at the White House.
At his hearing, Paul noted that he and his wife had promised the boys Yugioh cards in what he said would be direct proportion to how well they behaved that morning.
I thought the boys did quite well that day and hope they were duly rewarded.
I was also touched at that hearing when Paul talked about his wife and her role in supporting his work.
He said: “Every day that she allows me to practice law outside the home while she stays home with our three boys is a personal sacrifice and an indulgence of my interests, for which I am eternally grateful.”
I am not the only one to recognize Paul Clement as a very good man and a very good lawyer or to applaud his service to our country.
I ask unanimous consent to place in the record following my remarks letters sent to me by former Solicitors General Ted Olson and Seth Waxman, the current Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip and his predecessor Paul McNulty, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, former Senator John Ashcroft, Judge Laurence Silberman, and Justice Antonin Scalia.
I want to highlight a few comments from just a few of these letters. Former Solicitor General Ted Olson, for example, wrote to me that “I have been continuously impressed by his unfailing dedication and talent. I cannot imagine a more productive, honorable and distinguished record of exceptional government service….General Clement has also been an outstanding steward of the office of the Solicitor General throughout his seven years of government service….He leaves this fine office in superb condition, fully staffed and in the hands of lawyers dedicated to carry on the work of the Solicitor General.”
Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip attended Harvard Law School with Paul and together they clerked for Justice Scalia. He writes: “The respect and praise for Mr. Clement is the product of his unique talents and work ethic. He is exceptionally bright, and he is a gifted oral advocate. He is also intellectually honest and open-minded….Paul is a fundamentally decent person, and a true patriot, and the Department of Justice and Nation are decidedly better because of his public service.”
And Justice Scalia wrote to me this way: “when it was rumored that Paul Clement was under consideration to fill the vacancy in the office of Solicitor General, the Court (and I speak here of a 9-0 judgment) was delighted. It was the consensus, based on Mr. Clement’s appearances before us over the preceding few years, that the President could not make a better choice. We have not been disappointed in our expectation. For the past seven years, General Clement could be relied upon to assure that the Government’s case was presented forcefully but fairly, without exaggeration or obfuscation. The Government did not always win, of course, because sometimes its case was a weak one; but the Office of Solicitor General said for it the best that could be said. I take special pride in passing along this praise, since as you know Paul was once a law clerk of mine and has remained a good friend.”
This is certainly high praise and I share all of it.
But Paul Clement is no ordinary super-lawyer. Last year, a profile in the Wall Street Journal noted Paul’s credentials and brilliance but also revealed that he is a fan of alternative rock music, with his favorite band the grunge group Nirvana.
The Journal speculated that Paul is the first Solicitor General to frequent the 9:30 Club, described as Washington’s alternative rock outpost.
A writer on the Wall Street Journal’s blog offered this simple yet profound assessment, which I also share:
Paul Clement rocks.
I understand that Paul will be staying in the Washington area, returning to teach law at Georgetown and serving as a fellow at the Supreme Court Institute. Both institutions and the people they serve are truly blessed to have him. Already in his young life, Paul Clement has touched many lives and made America better.
I understand that Paul and his family are today doing some well-deserved traveling abroad. I join so many others in thanking him for his service to America and in offering my prayers for him and his family in their lives ahead.
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