Born in Boise, raised in Idaho, this ‘prolific’ woman is Biden’s solicitor general pick
In the 1990s, a junior high student living near Idaho City spent afternoons attending classes at Boise State University.
On Aug. 11, 2021, she was nominated by President Joe Biden to lead the U.S. Office of the Solicitor General, which chooses, supervises and handles the government’s cases before the Supreme Court.
Elizabeth Prelogar, who was born Elizabeth Barchas at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center, was nominated by Biden after serving as acting solicitor general since shortly after he took office in January. She left that role this month while her nomination is considered by the U.S. Senate.
Growing up in Boise, her family had a cabin near Idaho City, which the Barchases lived in while she was in junior high. Basin Elementary School provided transportation — nearly an hour’s drive — so Elizabeth could attend classes at Boise State University, according to her mother, Jeanne Barchas, a special education teacher in the Boise School District for more than two decades.
“She was quite the sensation over (at Boise State) because she was only 12,” Barchas told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “She got A’s in every one of her classes,” which included courses in writing and psychology.
“I taught for 33 years, (and she was) by far the most brilliant student I ever taught,” John McFarlane, a former Basin School District superintendent who had Prelogar in social studies, math and science classes, told the Statesman by phone.
McFarlane said that while talented students sometimes can be socially awkward or even self-involved, that was never the case with Prelogar.
“As bright and brilliant as Elizabeth was, she was very down to earth, very humble, (with a) self-effacing sense of humor — just really kind,” McFarlane said. “Typically a kid that’s that bright is going to be resented by the other students, and she wasn’t because she was just such a nice person to everybody.”
He added that some teachers didn’t know what to do with her.
“She was so verbal and so conversant, and asked such good questions, that some of the teachers found it a little intimidating,” McFarlane said. “My advice was to give her the resources you can, encourage her as much as you can, and get out of the way.”
From Boise High to Atlanta to Russia to Harvard
A 1998 graduate of Boise High School, Prelogar has previously worked for the solicitor general’s office and served as an assistant special counsel to Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The 41-year-old is also a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, and has a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and a law degree from Harvard University. She also speaks some Russian; before attending law school, she was a Fulbright scholar in St. Petersburg.
She also was Miss Idaho in 2004, and had a platform promoting understanding of people with disabilities, according to her mother.
Her father, Rudolf “Rudy” Barchas, was the first head of the Idaho Attorney General’s Office Consumer Protection Division. He died in 2019.
After law school, Prelogar clerked for Merrick Garland, at the time a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., and now the U.S. attorney general. Garland became a household name when President Barack Obama nominated him to the Supreme Court, but he was blocked by Mitch McConnell and Republicans in the Senate, who would not even give him a hearing or consider his nomination.
After working for Garland, she clerked for Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, who in 2009 became the first female solicitor general in U.S. history.
Prelogar’s mother said that before her daughter became an attorney, she was considering a career in journalism. As an undergraduate, Prelogar was a staff writer for Emory’s student newspaper, and spent two summers working for the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman and The Boston Globe.
When she started law school, Prelogar told her mom, “I’m not sure I want to be a lawyer, but I really want to learn how they think,” Jeanne Barchas said. After less than a semester, she told her mother that she loved studying law.
Prelogar lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons, but returns to Idaho frequently. Attempts by the Statesman to reach her for comment on this article were unsuccessful.
“She still feels really strong ties with this state,” her mother said. “I think that she has a real affinity for Idaho.”
Even in high school, Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar stood out
Jordan Heller, a friend from high school and law school who is a Boise attorney, remembers studying and doing homework with Prelogar at Moxie Java, and they also had a study group at Flying M. Heller said Prelogar was adept at each subject she put her mind to.
“She’s very intellectually curious and conversant in any number (of subjects),” Heller told the Statesman. “I’ve always admired how considered her judgment is.
“She was extremely hard-working, but she was also just prolific. If we had an hour to write a paper, she could just produce a beautiful (essay) that was three times as long as anything most of us were writing.”
She said that Prelogar was interested in Russian literature in high school, and that her talent as a writer and her interests in current events and journalism serve her well as an attorney.
“I think law has a lot in common with investigative reporting, with writing and analysis. These things all have a similar skill set,” Heller said.
Russ Heller, Jordan’s father and one of Prelogar’s high school history teachers, remembers her as a dedicated and talented student. When Prelogar was named a Presidential Scholar her senior year, he traveled with her to the award ceremony at the White House.
“She was self-disciplined and confident, but never had a sense of vanity or self-regard about her,” he told the Statesman by phone. “She treated others with the same care and attention that she gave her school work.”
Russ Heller added that her successful career has not been a surprise.
“Part of her career is still in front of her, and who knows, but nothing will surprise me if she goes to even grander heights,” he said.
Prelogar’s nomination to be solicitor general requires Senate confirmation, and the timing of her hearings is unclear. The Senate is in recess until after Labor Day.
The office of Sen. Dick Durbin, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, did not return a request for comment.
