Elizabeth Prelogar
Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar (born March 7, 1980; née Elizabeth Margaret Barchas[3]) is an American lawyer who has served as solicitor general of the United States since October 2021. She served as acting solicitor general from January 20, 2021,[4] at the start of the Biden administration, until President Joe Biden sent her nomination to the U.S. Senate on August 11, 2021,[5] when she was prevented from serving while the nomination was before the Senate as a result of the terms of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998.[6]
Elizabeth Prelogar
Brian Fletcher (acting)
Jeff Wall (acting)
Brian Fletcher (acting)
Joe Biden
Brian Fletcher
March 7, 1980
Boise, Idaho, U.S.
Early life and education[edit]
Prelogar was born on March 7, 1980, as the youngest of four children to Jeanne Louise (nee' Bullock)[7] and Rudolph Daniel "Rudy" Barchas[3][8] and was raised in Boise, Idaho.[9] Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a teacher.[10]
She graduated from Boise High School in 1998.[11] After first taking college courses at Boise State University at the age of 12,[12] she attended Emory University, where she double majored in English and Russian and was a Fulbright Scholar. She graduated from Emory in 2002 with her B.A., summa cum laude.
During 2002 and 2003, Prelogar studied creative writing at the University of St Andrews, receiving an M.Litt. with distinction.[13] She then attended Harvard Law School, where she was an articles editor for the Harvard Law Review and a finalist in the Ames Moot Court Competition.[14][15] Prelogar graduated with her J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard in 2008.[16][17]
Prelogar is fluent in Russian.[18] While at Harvard, she won an Overseas Press Club scholarship to study Russian media and censorship.[19][20]
Career[edit]
After graduating law school, Prelogar spent three years as a law clerk—first for judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2008 to 2009, then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from 2009 to 2010, and then for Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan from 2010 to 2011. She then entered private practice as an associate at Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C. She taught a course at Harvard Law School on Supreme Court and appellate advocacy.[21]
From 2014 to 2019, Prelogar was an assistant to the solicitor general. She was briefly detailed to the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. In 2020, she joined the Washington D.C. office of Cooley LLP as a partner.[22] She was named principal deputy solicitor general by President Joe Biden in January 2021 and served as acting solicitor general.[23] On August 10, 2021, President Biden nominated Prelogar to the office of solicitor general.[21][24] Her nomination was sent to the Senate that same day.[25] Her nomination was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee,[26] which approved it by a vote of 13–9.[27]
On October 28, 2021, the Senate confirmed Prelogar as solicitor general by a vote of 53–36,[28] making her the second woman to hold the position after Elena Kagan, who later became a Supreme Court Justice.[29][30] She was sworn into office later on that day.[31]
Personal life[edit]
She married Brandon Prelogar in 2008, and they have two sons together. Prelogar was Miss Idaho Teen USA in 1998, Miss Idaho USA in 2001,[32] and Miss Idaho in 2004.[33][34] Prelogar donated to the Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign and Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign.[1] She also performed in a mock trial with Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2016 prior to their appointments to the Supreme Court.[1]