I'm inclined to think my fellow Democrats are making a mistake wasting a lot of energy -- indeed, wasting any energy at all -- on these memos,

I guess Democrats are against providing a stable energy source for the state.

I just want to make sure that I follow through with the game plan and just bring energy off the bench. I just want to be aggressive and make sure I do what is asked of me.

It is rather unlikely that memos signed by the deputy solicitor general will be crassly or even overtly political. What is said will be said, almost certainly, in terms of supposed 'professional' judgments about what would persuade the Supreme Court.

It entirely depends on the administration. The Justice Department, as far back as I am aware, has always had a role, and I assume will always have one, of vetting nominees assembling information, doing that sort of work. Whether the attorney general and her subordinates are actively involved in choices about judicial appointments is going to depend on who the attorney general is and what his or her relationship to the president is,

Despite all of the references to 'senior policy maker,' the principal deputy solicitor general isn't really that,