| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Richard L. Pacelle, Jr. Between Law and Politics: The Solicitor General and the Structuring of Race, Gender, and Reproductive Rights Litigation. (The Presidency and Leadership, number 14.) College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 2003. Pp. xvi, 342. $50.00.
Political scientist Richard L. Pacelle, Jr., brings overdue attention to the office of solicitor general in this engaging, well-researched book. The solicitor general's basic duties, Pacelle reminds us, are important for American legal development. These include full control over deciding which of the cases the government lost in the federal courts will be appealed, and the provision of amicus curiae briefs in others. The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is given great respect by the Supreme Court; its amicus briefs carry greater weight than those from other sources, and the Court sometimes asks for guidance from the OSG.	1
Pacelle does not attempt to adjudicate between different theoretical traditions and/or test hypotheses about the phenomenon in question. Instead, he simply announces that he will adopt a "new institutionalist" approach (p. 13), which he uses as an interpretive framework for understanding the OSG. This means that he treats seriously the ways that formal and informal rules constrain and enable strategic actors within the OSG. Pacelle uses quantitative methods where the data consist of OSG briefs in order to extrapolate trends, and also interviews with an impressive array of former solicitors general and staff members. These interviews show how the OSG approached its institutional position and strategy making. Pacelle was able to obtain interviews with former solicitors general Robert Bork, Archibald Cox, Drew Days, and Kenneth Starr.	. . .

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