Francisco to Step Down as Trump’s Top Supreme Court Advocate

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco is planning to step down after almost three years as the Trump administration’s top advocate at the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Francisco, who argued in favor of President Donald Trump’s travel ban in 2018 and against subpoenas for his financial records this year, will leave on July 3, the department said.

In a statement, Attorney General William Barr praised Francisco as a “principled and persuasive advocate.” Francisco said serving as solicitor general is “one of the greatest jobs in the law.”

Solicitors general often step down during election years as the Supreme Court’s term comes to a close. Similar departures happened in 2004, 2008 and 2016.

Francisco, 50, was aggressive in seeking emergency Supreme Court intervention so that Trump administration policies could take effect. For the most part, those efforts were successful, as the conservative court let Trump bar most transgender people from the military, make asylum seekers wait in Mexico and use a tough financial-means test to screen out green card applicants.

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