It's not obvious from the LWN article, but the reason it says "White House" is that lawyers from the DoJ have filed an Amicus Curiae ("Friend of the Court") brief informing them of their stance on the topic. [1] [2]
Is the term "White House" often used to refer to anything within the executive branch? I have always assumed it meant the office of the President and perhaps his cabinet...
It's an amicus brief filed by DoJ with the Solicitor General's name of it - a man directly appointed by Obama in 2011. In more ways than even other DoJ briefs [1], there is a straight line from this to Obama, and surely if he wished to intervene to alter or prevent the submission of this brief he would have been able to.
To answer your question yes, in general, actions taken with direct authority or direction from high-level appointees of the President are described by the media as "White House" actions, with good reason.
It makes sense really, anyone that the president appoints is not elected so can't be judged directly by the public through voting, the only fair thing to do is hold his publicly elected appointer responsible for actions.
I've been exposed to or worked on a few style guides on this topic. I think pretty much universally, in US media, "White House" means elements of the executive branch outside the cabinet-level departments. So it includes the Executive Office of the President, the OMB, ONDCP, DoJ, etc.
It does not include law enforcement or intelligence agencies, nor cabinet-level departments. So "White House" does not mean FBI, DEA, Department of the Interior, etc. However, the term "Administration" or "<President's last name> Administration" does include these entities.
> I've been exposed to or worked on a few style guides on this topic. I think pretty much universally, in US media, "White House" means elements of the executive branch outside the cabinet-level departments.
That would mean most non-cabinet and "independent" agencies -- all of which are part of the executive branch and not part of a cabinet-level department -- would be part of the "White House", which assuredly is not the common use.
Usually, it means specifically the Executive Office of the President. (Rarely, it might even more specifically mean the White House Office, which is within the Executive Office of the President and, like the Executive Office, also headed by the White House Chief of Staff.)
> So it includes the Executive Office of the President, the OMB, ONDCP, DoJ, etc.
OMB and ONDCP are part of the Executive Office of the President. [0]
DoJ (which, relevant to the thread, includes the Office of the Solicitor General) is a cabinet-level department (headed by the Attorney-General), and so even if your excessively-broad "outside the cabinet-level departments" rule was correct, would still be excluded.
You gotta remember Obama hasn't written a line of code in his life and has someone literally tells him what his opinions and stances are on technology issues.
> DOJ people don't just wake up and submit opinions to the Supreme Court at the approval of some random middle manager.
Well, no, the Solicitor General, under whose authority such things are done (and who is the person to whom the Supreme Court issues -- as it did in this case -- "invitations" [treated as commands] for input), is one of the highest-ranking officers at DoJ.
The Solicitor General is still appointed by the WH, and confirmed by the Senate. I would think that he/she, ostensibly speaking, would probably be in direct dialogue with the WH with respect to the executive's position on legal matters, especially considering that they so often end up on the Supreme Court anyway.
> Is the term "White House" often used to refer to anything within the executive branch?
Only when people are being sloppy, either through ignorance, or, e.g, because its convenient for spin they'd look to put on something.
Less sloppily, referring to an entity rather than a building, it refers to either the White House Office within the Executive Office of the President, or the whole Executive Office of the President (both of which are headed by the White House Chief of Staff.)