From 1998 to 2002, Srinivasan was in private practice as an associate at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers. He then returned to the Office of the Solicitor General, where he worked from 2002 until 2007. He rejoined O'Melveny & Myers in 2007 as a partner, and was the firm's hiring partner for its
Washington, D.C. office.[9] While at the firm, he represented
ExxonMobil for
accusations of human rights abuses by hired military personnel at an Indonesian gas plant.[10] In 2010, he represented former Enron executive
Jeffrey Skilling in
his appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, which challenged the
"honest services" fraud statute and also that Skilling's trial was never moved from
Houston.[11] The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Skilling on the "
honest services fraud" statute, but rejected the trial location argument.[12]
On August 26, 2011, Srinivasan was appointed to replace
Neal Katyal as Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States.[2] As of May 2013, Srinivasan had argued 25 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier in his career, he also performed
pro bono work for presidential candidate
Al Gore during the aftermath of the
2000 presidential election.[14]
In 2013, he was part of the legal team that presented arguments before the Supreme Court against the
Defense of Marriage Act in the case of United States v. Windsor.[15] He left the Solicitor General's office on May 24, 2013, when he was commissioned as a federal judge.
Federal judicial service
In March 2010, National Review blogger
Edward Whelan wrote that the Obama administration had been considering nominating Srinivasan to one of two vacancies on the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and that the idea of nominating Srinivasan had run into opposition from some Obama supporters because of Srinivasan's work in the U.S. Solicitor General's office during the Bush administration, and union animosity to Srinivasan's corporate clients in private practice.[16]
In June 2012, Obama nominated Srinivasan to the seat on the D.C. Circuit.[17] On January 2, 2013, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the
sine die adjournment of the Senate; the next day he was renominated to the same office.[18]
His Senate confirmation hearing on April 10, 2013 was uneventful.[19] His nomination was reported out of committee on May 16, 2013, by a 18–0 vote.[20] A final vote on his nomination took place on May 23, 2013, where he was confirmed by a 97–0 vote.[6][21][22] He received his commission on May 24, 2013.[1] He took the oath of office before Chief Judge
Merrick Garland in June.[23] At his formal swearing-in ceremony in September, administered by retired Supreme Court justice
Sandra Day O'Connor, he took the oath on the Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita[24] and became the first federal appellate judge of
South Asian descent.[25] He became Chief Judge on February 11, 2020.[26]
Notable decisions
In Sierra Club v. Jewell, 764 F. 3d 1 (2014),[27] Srinivasan authored the majority opinion in the D.C. Circuit's split decision holding that environmental groups seeking to protect the site of the historic
Battle of Blair Mountain possessed
Article III standing to challenge the removal of the site from the
National Register of Historic Places in federal court.[28]
Srinivasan authored the D.C. Circuit's decision in Pom Wonderful v. FTC, 777 F.3d 478 (2015),[29] which upheld
FTC regulations that require health-related advertising claims be supported by clinical studies while simultaneously trimming the number of studies required on
First Amendment grounds.[30]
In Home Care Association of America v. Weil, 799 F. 3d 1084 (2015),[31] Srinivasan authored the D.C. Circuit's decision reinstating, under
Chevron deference, regulations that guarantee overtime and minimum wage protection to home health care workers, citing "dramatic transformation" of the home care industry over the past forty years as reason for the change.[32]
Srinivasan authored the D.C. Circuit's decision in Hodge v. Talkin, 799 F. 3d 1145 (2015),[33] which upheld a federal law prohibiting demonstrations in the
U.S. Supreme Court Building's plaza as justified by the Supreme Court's interest in not giving the appearance of being influenced by public opinion and as consistent with
nonpublic forum viewpoint-neutral restrictions, where demonstrations could proceed on nearby public sidewalks.[34]
In Jarkesy v. SEC, 803 F. 3d 9 (2015),[35] Srinivasan authored the D.C. Circuit's decision holding that the securities laws under the
Dodd–Frank Act provide an exclusive avenue for judicial review that plaintiffs may not bypass by filing suit in district court.[36]
Srinivasan authored the D.C. Circuit's decision in Simon v. Republic of Hungary, Slip Op. (2016),[37] holding that Article 27 of the
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act merely creates a floor on compensation for
Holocaust survivors because the text of the
1947 peace treaty between Hungary and the Allies does not bar claims outside of the treaty and because the Allies "lacked the power to eliminate (or waive) the claims of" Hungary's own citizens against their government.[38]
In a July 6, 2021 ruling, The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, Inc. v. FDA, Srinivasan dissented when the majority overturned the FDA's ban on shocking devices, which the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center uses to torture autistic and disabled students. "The result of the majority's ruling," he wrote, is to "force" the FDA to either "abolish a highly beneficial use" of a device "so it can stamp out a highly risky one," or to "stomach the highly risky use so it can preserve the highly beneficial one."[39][40]
Following the death of Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia on February 13, 2016, Srinivasan was again widely speculated to be among the most likely contenders to be appointed to fill the seat, prior to the nomination of
Merrick Garland.[44][45] After Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell threatened to refuse to consider any Obama appointee to fill the seat in an election year, and split political parties in government, it was thought that Srinivasan, who was confirmed 97–0 in 2013, would be politically difficult to block, had he been nominated.[46][47]