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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