After a routine Supreme Court argument on Wednesday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked the lawyer who had represented the government to return to the lectern.
“You have just presented your 160th argument before this court, and I understand it is intended to be your last,” the chief justice told the lawyer, Edwin S. Kneedler, who is retiring as a deputy solicitor general. “That is the record for modern times.”
Chief Justice Roberts talked a little more, with affection and high praise, thanking Mr. Kneedler for his “extraordinary care and professionalism.”
Then something remarkable happened. Applause burst out in the courtroom, and that led to a standing ovation for Mr. Kneedler, with the justices joining, too.
“It was a rare moment of unanimity and spontaneous joy from all nine justices on the bench,” said Richard Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard. “They were all beaming.”
Kannon Shanmugam, a veteran Supreme Court lawyer, said it was “one of the most electric moments I’ve ever seen in the courtroom.”
The tribute to Mr. Kneedler’s candor and integrity came against the backdrop of a different kind of courtroom behavior. In the early months of the second Trump administration, its lawyers have been accused of gamesmanship, dishonesty and defiance, and have been fired for providing frank answers to judges.
Mr. Kneedler presented a different model, former colleagues said.
“Ed is the embodiment of the government lawyer ideal — one whose duty of candor to the court and interest in doing justice, not just winning a case, always carried the day,” said Gregory G. Garre, who served as solicitor general under President George W. Bush.
Mr. Shanmugam said Mr. Kneedler’s loyalty was to the rule of law. “He would much rather get the law right at the risk of losing,” Mr. Shanmugam said, “than win at the cost of misrepresenting the law.”
Seth P. Waxman, who was solicitor general in the Clinton administration, said Mr. Kneedler was the opposite of a partisan.
“In all the years that I worked with Ed in the Justice Department, I did not know his politics,” Mr. Waxman said.
Mr. Kneedler joined the Office of the Solicitor General, the elite unit of the Justice Department that represents the federal government in the Supreme Court, in 1979, served in many administrations and helped tutor the solicitors general who came and went.
“I was incredibly lucky to have Ed as a deputy when I was S.G.,” Justice Elena Kagan, who served as solicitor general in the Obama administration, said in a statement. “There’s pretty much no legal question he can’t answer. And he has a bone-deep understanding of the traditions and ethos of the S.G.’s office.”
She added: “I learned from him every day, and I did my job far better because he was there. In all the time I’ve spent in government, I’ve never known a finer public servant.”
That was something like a consensus view among former solicitors general. Mr. Waxman, for instance, called Mr. Kneedler “a national treasure.”
Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general in the first Trump administration, said that Mr. Kneedler was “not just a font of knowledge, but of wisdom.”
Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the solicitor general in the Biden administration, said that “Ed Kneedler represents the very best of what it means to be a lawyer for the United States.”
Mr. Kneedler’s retirement is part of a wave of departures from the solicitor general’s office, which is quite small. After the solicitor general and a handful of deputies, there are just 16 line lawyers. About half of them are leaving, The Washington Post reported this month.
Mr. Kneedler, 79, did not respond to requests for an interview. When he received an award this month from the University of Virginia’s law school, his alma mater, he said he was “a career civil servant, not in the press if I can avoid it.”
At the ceremony, Mr. Kneedler gave extended remarks, making points that in another era might have seemed unremarkable. These days, they verged on provocative.
Calling himself a “citizen lawyer,” he praised the many federal employees he had worked with, saying he had been impressed by their “compassion and understanding for our country, and dedication to our country.”
He said his office analyzed legal issues with rigor and care, at least in cases on the court’s regular docket. Since Mr. Trump took office in January, the government has filed a torrent of emergency applications on what critics call the court’s shadow docket.
“When we don’t have emergencies like we have a number of now,” Mr. Kneedler said, “we have a very structured decision-making process.”
Leslie Kendrick, the Virginia law school’s dean, asked Mr. Kneedler a few questions, one of which was premised on his office’s “commitment to providing nonpartisan representation for the United States, regardless of cause, regardless of the political leadership of the other two branches.”
Mr. Kneedler did not quite adopt the premise. “We are lawyers for the United States,” he said, “and the administration in office is the ultimate determiner of what the interests of the United States are.”
But he ended his remarks on a hopeful note. “We’re all part of a process that is leading us to a more perfect union,” he said, “which means a union in which we are coming together, not apart.”
Before the standing ovation at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Chief Justice Roberts, himself a veteran of the solicitor general’s office, added what he called a personal note as he spoke to Mr. Kneedler.
“I recall that on two occasions you and I argued on the same side here, me representing a private client and you the United States,” the chief justice said. “We lost each of those cases. I’m sure it was my fault. Mr. Kneedler, thank you for your outstanding service to court and country.”
President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Michigan on Tuesday evening to mark the first 100 days of his second term.
He is staging his largest public event since returning to the White House in a state that has been especially rocked by his steep trade tariffs.
Ahead of the rally he issued a new executive order that requires truck drivers to speak English and pass literacy tests.
As he hit his 100th day in office Trump issued his own verdict on how he is doing in his second term: ‘GREAT.’
Follow the latest on the DailyMail.com blog
Trump holding biggest rally of second term
President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Michigan on Tuesday night to tout his achievements in the first 100 days of his second term.
It will be his largest public event since returning to the White House .
he is holding it in a state that has been damaged by his tariffs.
Before the rally Trump shared a hug with a longtime antagonist, Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
They appeared together to announce a new fighter jet mission being placed at an Air National Guard base outside Detroit.
Trump gives shocking response on his pick for the next Pope
Donald Trump smoothed Amazon feud with a personal call to Jeff Bezos
President Donald Trump on Tuesday confirmed reports that he spoke with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos on Tuesday after news broke that the online retailer was considering labeling products with the increased cost from his tariffs.
Trump was gracious after the conversation, revealing to reporters that the pair of billionaires had worked things out.
‘Jeff Bezos was very nice, he was terrific he solved the problem very quickly and he did the right thing,’ he said.
‘He’s a good guy,’ he added.
Earlier in the day, the White House condemned the idea as ‘hostile’ and ‘political’ during a morning press briefing.
Trump shows off a new ‘Gulf of America’ hat to the press
President Donald Trump displayed a new hat for reporters gathered in the White House South Lawn on Tuesday as he left for a campaign rally in Michigan.
The hat featured the words ‘Gulf of America’ in large white lettering in a campaign style hat, the latest attempt to emphasize his decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
Exclusive:Explosive poll shows Trump crushing Republican rivals in the 2028 primary…if he can find a way to run for a third term
By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent
President Donald Trump annihilates all of his Republican rivals in a hypothetical 2028 primary race.
Republican respondents were told to presume that Trump’s Constitutional hurdles of getting on the ballot again had been cleared to see if there was an appetite for a third Trump time.
A whopping 39 percent said Trump would be their first choice, followed by 19 percent who selected Vice President J.D. Vance
After that, failed 2024 candidates, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley garnered 6 percent and 4 percent support, respectively.
Donald Trump jokes that he’d like to be the next Pope
President Donald Trump joked that he’d like to be the next pope, as Vatican cardinals gather for a conclave to elect the next potiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
The president spoke briefly about the pope as he left the White House for a rally in Michigan.
When asked by reporters who he wanted to see as the next Pope, Trump replied jokingly, ‘I would like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice.’
Trump said he did not have a preference for the next pope but referred to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York as a possible option.
‘We have a cardinal at a place called New York that is very good so we will see what happens,’ he said.
Exclusive:Melania Trump by far the most popular Trump White House official
By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent
First Lady Melania Trump – who’s only made rare public appearances at President Donald Trump’s side during his first 100 days in office – has the best approval numbers of anyone in his administration.
The first lady received a plus-13 rating – with 30 percent of respondents viewing her very favorably and another 15 percent viewing her somewhat favorably.
Those numbers are identical to her husband’s – but she tops the list because her unfavorables aren’t as bad.
Twenty four percent of respondents rated Melania Trump very unfavorably, while 8 percent had a somewhat unfavorable view of the first lady.
At the same time, 42 percent of those polled view the president very unfavorably, with another 9 percent holding a somewhat unfavorable view of the commander-in-chief.
Trump makes yet another tariffs U-turn this time for the auto industry
It’s the latest significant reversal from the White House, following American automakers’ consistent complaints that import taxes threatened to harm domestic manufacturers.
But don’t expect the tariff relief to help consumer wallets, analysts said.
Breaking:The eye-popping number of illegal migrants deported under Trump in first 100 days
The Trump administration has arrested and deported a shocking number of illegal migrants – including thousands of known ‘scammers’ – since the president took office in January.
A total of 65,682 illegal immigrants were removed within Trump’s first 100 days, a Department of Homeland Security official revealed to the Daily Mail.
That makes a portion of the 66,463 total arrests made since Trump took office.
The official said that five percent of the arrested individuals have criminal charges or convictions.
That figure includes 498 migrants with murder allegations and 1,329 who were tied to sex offenses. Another 2,288 were suspected gang members.
The Daily Mail is also first to exclusively report that 7,120 illegal migrants have been alleged to have participated in benefit fraud schemes.
Elise Stefanik says she has NOT talked to the speaker about a possible bid for governor
Trump’s brutal new executive order requires truckers to be fluent in English
President Donald Trump is inking new executive orders that would target ‘sanctuary cities’ in liberal enclaves – and direct authorities to yank back billions in federal revenue if necessary.
The cities, including New York, Chicago and Boston, have established laws protecting migrants amid ICE deportation efforts going after people who came here illegally.
The issue burst back into the forefront with the arrest of a Wisconsin judge was charged with helping an undocumented immigrant who was in her courtroom avoid arrest.
Another order signed by Trump on Monday requires truck drivers to speak English and pass literacy tests.
‘Proficiency in English … should be a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers,’ according to the order.
White House denounces Amazon threat to display tariff price tags for products made in China
White House Press Secretary denounced Amazon on Tuesday after the online retailer previewed a special tag denoting the higher cost of goods as a result of the president’s tariffs.
‘This is a hostile and political act by Amazon…It’s not a surprise because, as Reuters recently wrote, Amazon has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm. So this is another reason why Americans should buy American,’ Leavitt said.
Bessent won’t confirm Trump-Xi talks, says he’s not the White House’s switchboard
By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent
‘I would say Karoline and I have a lot of jobs around the White House, running the switchboard is not one of them,’ he told reporters at a Tuesday morning briefing.
Bessent also pushed that Chinese politics were at play when asked to explain the repeated denials from China that trade talks were happening.
‘They have a different form of government. They’re playing to a different audience. So I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of who’s talking to whom,’ Bessent said.
The U.S. continues to have a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods amid the current trade war.
Canadian Prime Minister launches attack on Trump
Canada election results bring shock victory
More humiliation for ‘Canada’s Trump’
Exclusive:Trump’s approval rating after 100 days revealed in new Daily Mail poll
Trump delivers his verdict on 100 days of second term
President Trump took to Truth Social to give his assessment of how he is doing after 100 days.
We are doing GREAT, better than ever before.
Share or comment on this article:
Trump marks 100 days in office with major ‘achievement speech’ in Michigan: Live updates
