Daily Inspiration Quote by Elena Kagan

Kagan’s line lands because it’s a velvet-gloved jab at the Supreme Court’s own self-mythology. Calling the solicitor general “the 35th clerk” isn’t just a cute institutional in-joke; it’s an indictment of how the Court can slip from umpire to clubhouse, treating the government’s top advocate like a favored insider rather than an adversarial party.

The specific intent is to name an imbalance without sounding aggrieved. Kagan knows the solicitor general traditionally enjoys unusual credibility at the Court: repeat-player status, elite pedigrees, an office built around anticipating the justices’ questions, and a reputation for candor. By framing that privilege as a kind of extra clerkship, she turns what is usually praised as “expertise” into something faintly improper: intimacy disguised as professionalism.

The subtext is about power and information. Clerks don’t merely argue; they shape the justices’ understanding of cases, translate messy facts into clean legal frames, and help draft outcomes. Kagan’s quip suggests the solicitor general can perform a similar function in open court, guiding the justices toward the government’s preferred narrative while benefiting from the presumption that the SG is there to help the Court get it right. That’s not corruption; it’s culture. And culture, in a place built on tradition, can be harder to confront than bias you can measure.

Context matters: Kagan is also a former solicitor general. The joke doubles as self-aware confession and critique, signaling she’s fluent in the Court’s hierarchies and willing to puncture them. It’s funny because it’s close to true, and unsettling for exactly the same reason.