Senate Confirms Dean John Sauer as Solicitor General
Sauer is President Donald Trump's latest criminal defense lawyer to serve in the Department of Justice.
The U.S. Senate has today voted to confirm the individual nominated by President Donald Trump to represent the U.S. government in its arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. The recorded vote once again fell along party lines.
In a 52-45 vote, Dean John Sauer was confirmed as Solicitor General of the United States. The position has been led by an acting official since January 2025, when Elizabeth Prelogar resigned after serving since October 2021.
52 Republicans approved Sauer’s nomination. 43 Democrats and two Independents voted in opposition. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) did not vote.
Sauer was nominated to this position by Trump in November 2024. Notably, he represented Trump during his criminal case appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. He successfully argued that the President has criminal immunity for any official actions taken while in office and the presumption of criminal immunity for anything on the periphery of official conduct.
Previously, Sauer was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia from July 2005 to July 2006. He then became an associate at Cooper & Kirk PPLC in Washington, D.C. from September 2006 to January 2008. That was followed by a tenure as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri from January 2008 to January 2013. He left to become a partner at Clark & Sauer LLC in St. Louis, Missouri from March 2013 to August 2015. He then founded James Otis Law Group LLC where he was active from August 2015 to January 2017 and again since January 2023. And finally, he joined the Missouri Attorney General’s Office in January 2017 and ultimately served as Solicitor General of Missouri from January 2019 to January 2023.