Supreme Court of the United States. That means the "S.G." stands in the ornate chamber, faces nine of the top legal minds in the country, and gets constantly interrupted with a deluge of questions from a very hot bench.

Past solicitors general relish the experience.

In fact, the legendary Thurgood Marshall, who changed the law as an NAACP-LDF attorney and later served on the Supreme Court, once said that his time as solicitor general from 1965-1967 was "the best job I've ever had, bar none."

Marshall made the revelation to Lincoln Caplan who published a book in 1987 called "The Tenth Justice: The Solicitor General and the Rule of Law."

Caplan said the job attracts those "endowed with a particular kind of logical mind, a capacious memory, but also a passion forthe stuff of Supreme Court practice which is opinions and more opinions."

While the solicitor general reports to the attorney general, he or she has responsibilities with other branches of government as well. That brings with it something rare in a government job: a large degree of independence.

But the "inestimable privilege" of representing the government is only the "tip of the iceberg" said Paul D. Clement who served as solicitor general during the George W. Bush administration.

"What really makes the solicitor general's job unique -- and makes it such an incomparable experience -- is the behind-the-scenes role of determining whether the United States will appeal‎ in thousands of cases each year and shaping the positions taken in those cases," he said.

"The solicitor general probably makes more strategic calls about