In the United States, the solicitor general is the government's lawyer in Supreme Court cases. Congress created the job in the 1870s. About two thirds of the cases in the Supreme Court involve the government. The solicitor general does not always argue them personally. He or she can send an assistant or other government lawyer to do it. When the government loses a case in the lower court, the solicitor general decides whether or not to appeal it and make it a Supreme Court case.