John Sauer

Sauer was solicitor general of Missouri from 2017 through 2022 under Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, when they each served as Missouri attorney general. Sauer served as a federal prosecutor for five years and spent time in civil practice at boutique law firms, including the firm he founded, the James Otis Law Group. Sauer has first-chaired many jury and bench trials, and served as lead counsel in many appeals. Mr. Sauer served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was a Rhodes Scholar and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. After leaving the Missouri Attorney General’s Office in 2023, Sauer has made substantial donations to anti-abortion causes in the state. This year, he contributed $777,000 to Missouri anti-abortion groups, including $277,000 to two groups that opposed a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.