Attorney General
Author | Jeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps |
Page 394
The chief law enforcement officer of the United States or of a state government, typically serving in an EXECUTIVE BRANCH position. The individual represents the government in litigation and serves as the principal advisor to government officials and agencies in legal matters.
The attorney general is head of the U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT and chief law officer of the federal government. He or she represents the United States in legal matters generally and gives advice and opinions to the president and to other heads of executive departments as requested. In cases of exceptional gravity or special
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importance, the attorney general may appear in person before the U.S. Supreme Court to represent the interests of the government.
As head of the Justice Department, the attorney general is charged with enforcing federal laws, furnishing legal counsel in federal cases, construing the laws under which other executive departments act, supervising federal penal institutions, and investigating violations of federal laws. The attorney general also supervises and directs the activities of the U.S. attorneys and U.S. MARSHALS in the various judicial
districts. (U.S. attorneys prosecute all offenses against the United States and prosecute or defend for the government all civil actions, suits, or proceedings in which the United States is concerned; U.S. marshals execute all lawful writs, processes, and orders issued under authority of the United States.)
The office of the attorney general was created by the First Congress in the JUDICIARY ACT OF 1789 (An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States, ch. 20, § 35, 1 Stat. 73, 92?93). The First Congress did not expect the attorney general?a part-time employee with scant pay, no staff, and little power?to play a major role in the emerging federal government. As the members of the First Congress established a system for the enforcement of federal laws, their primary concern was to protect state and individual freedoms and to avoid the creation of a central legal system that would allow the tyrannies they had experienced as American colonists under George III. Therefore, the Judiciary Act gave the attorney general just two principal duties: (1) to prosecute and conduct all suits in the SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES that concerned the United States and(2) to give an opinion on QUESTIONS OF LAW when asked to do so by the president or heads of other executive departments.
The early attorneys general spent little time arguing before the Supreme Court because few cases had traveled through the nation's developing court system and even fewer warranted Supreme Court review. Together, the first three attorneys general?Edmund Randolph, WILLIAM BRADFORD, and Charles Lee?represented the United States in the Supreme Court only six times in their collective years in office.
Furthermore, early attorneys general were specifically restricted by the Judiciary Act from participating in lower-court actions. District attorneys (known in the early 2000s as U.S.
U.S. Attorneys General | ||
Name | Term | President |
Edmund Randolph | 1789-1794 | Washington |
William Bradford | 1794-1795 | Washington |
Charles Lee | 1795-1801 | Washington & John Adams |
Levi Lincoln | 1801-1805 | Jefferson |
John Breckenridge | 1805-1806 | Jefferson |
Caesar A. Rodney | 1807-1811 | Jefferson & Madison |
William Pinkney | 1811-1814 | Madison |
Richard Rush | 1814-1817 | Madison |
William Wirt | 1817-1829 | Monroe & John Q. Adams |
John M. Berrien | 1829-1831 | Jackson |
Roger B. Taney | 1831-1833 | Jackson |
Benjamin F. Butler | 1833-1838 | Jackson & Van Buren |
Felix Grundy | 1838-1839 | Van Buren |
Henry D. Gilpin | 1840-1841 | Van Buren |
John J. Crittenden | 1841 | Harrison & Tyler |
Hugh S. Legare | 1841-1843 | Tyler |
John Nelson | 1843-1845 | Tyler |
John Y. Mason | 1845-1846 | Polk |
Nathan Clifford | 1846-1848 | Polk |
Issac Toucey | 1848-1849 | Polk |
Reverdy Johnson | 1849-1850 | Taylor |
John J. Crittenden | 1850-1853 | Fillmore |
Caleb Cushing | 1853-1857 | Pierce |
Jeremiah S. Black | 1857-1860 | Buchanan |
Edwin M. Stanton | 1860-1861 | Buchanan |
Edward Bates | 1861-1864 | Lincoln |
James Speed | 1864-1866 | Lincoln & Johnson |
Henry Stanberry | 1866-1868 | Johnson |
William M. Evarts | 1868-1869 | Johnson |
Ebenezer R. Hoar | 1869-1870 | Grant |
Amos T. Akerman | 1870-1872 | Grant |
George H. Williams | 1871-1875 | Grant |
Edwards Pierrepont | 1875-1876 | Grant |
Alphonso Taft | 1876-1877 | Grant |
Charles Devens | 1877-1881 | Hayes |
Wayne MacVeagh | 1881 | Garfield |
Benjamin H. Brewster | 1881-1885 | Arthur |
Augustus H. Garland | 1885-1889 | Cleveland |
William H.H. Miller | 1889-1893 | Harrison |
Richard Olney | 1893-1895 | Cleveland |
Judson Harmon | 1895-1897 | Cleveland |
Joseph McKenna | 1897-1898 | McKinley |
John W. Griggs | 1898-1901 | McKinley |
Philander C. Knox | 1901-1904 | McKinley |
William H. Moody | 1904-1906 | Roosevelt |
Charles J. Bonaparte | 1906-1909 | Roosevelt |
George W. Wickersham | 1909-1913 | Taft |
James C. McReynolds | 1913-1914 | Wilson |
Thomas Watt Gregory | 1914-1919 | Wilson |
A. Mitchell Palmer | 1919-1921 | Wilson |
Harry M. Daugherty | 1921-1924 | Harding |
Harlan Fiske Stone | 1924-1925 | Coolidge |
John G. Sargent | 1925-1929 | Coolidge |
William D. Mitchell | 1929-1933 | Hoover |
Homer S. Cummings | 1933-1939 | Roosevelt |
Frank Murphy | 1939-1940 | Roosevelt |
Robert H. Jackson | 1940-1941 | Roosevelt |
Francis Biddle | 1941-1945 | R |
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