D. John Sauer

Sauer's record is one of institutional trust rather than trophies. Two attorneys general, one state and one federal, have handed him the job of arguing their most important appeals. He argued the presidential immunity case that defined a presidency's legal boundaries, then stepped into the office that speaks for the entire federal government at the Supreme Court. Within a year and a half he had filed on tariffs, mail voting, agency rulemaking and inmate policy, often on the emergency docket where the Court rules fast and the stakes are highest. Few lawyers in the country have argued that many consequential cases in that short a span.