Article snippet: Over the past year, the federal government’s lead Supreme Court litigator has repeatedly attempted to expedite Trump administration cases by using an unorthodox maneuver, one that legal experts say is rarely successful. Solicitor General Noel Francisco has requested on eight separate occasions, twice in the same case, that justices bypass the regional federal appeals court and instead review the ruling by a lower district court. Those requests, known as petitions for a writ of certiorari before judgment, stemmed from challenges to MORE’s restrictions on transgender people serving in the military, its decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and its move to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. Court watchers say that in addition to being unusual, the strategy to leapfrog normal judicial order is aggressive and may undermine the solicitor general’s credibility with the justices. Legal scholars also fear that Francisco may be forcing the court to wade into political disputes before they are ready, a move that could make the public view the court as just another political institution. “I can tell you, seeking cert. before judgment in the lower court is quite rare, and the court taking cert. before judgement in the court of appeals is even rarer,” said Brian Wolfman, a professor at Georgetown Law. The solicitor general is employed by the Justice Department and often referred to to as the 10th justice because they have t... Link to the full article to read more