Chief Justice John Roberts was annoyed.
“The position that the United States is advancing today is different from the position that the United States previously advanced,” he told a lawyer in the solicitor general’s office, the elite unit of the Justice Department that represents the federal government in the Supreme Court.
The Obama administration had filed a brief disavowing a position taken by its predecessor, saying it was the product of “further reflection.”
“That is not the reason,” Roberts said. “It wasn’t further reflection.” The new position, he said, was prompted by a change in administrations.
The rebuke was in 2012, but its memory lingers in the solicitor general’s office, where the Biden administration will soon have to decide whether to disavow positions taken by its predecessor in major cases, including ones on health care and voting.
In an office that prizes its reputation for credibility, consistency and independence, solicitors general of both…
