U.S. Solicitor General to Quit Job for Yale Post

U.S. Solicitor General Drew S. Days III, the Clinton administration’s top courtroom lawyer, is planning to leave his post this summer to return to the Yale Law School, The Times learned Wednesday.

A soft-spoken former civil rights attorney, Days has had a rough tenure representing the government before the conservative-leaning Supreme Court.

In 1993, he drew the ire of conservative activists when he dropped the child pornography prosecution of a Pennsylvania man and said that the law did not ban the sale of salacious videos of scantily clad young girls.

President Clinton was forced to step in and end the flap by reversing Days’ decision.

Liberals also complained when Days refused to support the activists who are challenging a Colorado anti-gay initiative before the Supreme Court.

But a Justice Department official said the solicitor general is stepping down simply because he needs to return to Yale this fall to keep his tenured professorship.

Yale already had granted Days a one-year extension beyond the two years that is normally permitted, the official said, and an additional extension was not available.

Days, usually accessible and given to self-deprecating humor, declined to discuss the matter.

One of the highest ranking black lawyers in the administration, Days plays a central role in the department beyond deciding what cases the government will appeal to the high court and the circuits--decisions that make major legal policy.

At Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s request, he regularly attends the daily high command coordinating meeting, along with Deputy Atty. Gen. Jamie S. Gorelick, Associate Atty. Gen. John R. Schmidt and Walter Dellinger, assistant attorney general who heads the office of legal counsel.

The vacancy will present Clinton with an interesting choice about five months before the November election.

The high court recesses for the summer, but the solicitor’s office is extremely busy as the new court term opens Oct. 7 and initially decides which cases it will agree to rule on later in the term.

With the Senate likely to be in recess, Clinton could name an acting solicitor, awaiting the outcome of the November election.

One official likely to receive consideration would be Dellinger, a Duke University law professor, who came to the Justice Department from the White House counsel’s office.

But his nomination could face resistance from powerful Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, his fellow North Carolinian, who delayed his confirmation to his present post for months.