Chapter 4 provides extensive analysis of the cases filed by the government between 1959 and 1986. Salokar constructed two data sets for this research. These data allow a far richer analysis of the solicitors general work than we have seen heretofore. In addition to considering the success of the office over time in cases where the government is the petitioner, the respondent, or acting as a friend of the court, Salokar provides a fascinating case study of individual rights cases. She finds that when the government is a respondent in these cases, it defends executive prerogatives regardless of the party in the White House.
Partisan differences do show up in decisions to seek review and in the filing of amicus briefs.
During the years of her study the more liberal court handed the government more defeats than are the norm in individual rights cases where it was the respondent. Her study does not measure the effects of the new, more conservative court but her findings suggest fertile ground for further research. This closing discussion is interesting but would have been better placed at the start of the book and more effectively woven into the other chapters. As it is, it comes almost as an afterthought. Salokar's book provides much needed information about the process by which the solicitor general represents the interests of the executive branch before the Supreme Court.