115 rows · The United States attorney general ( AG) leads the United States Department of Justice, and is ...
Mar 12, 2021 · The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the Office of the Attorney General which evolved over the years into the head of the Department of Justice and chief law enforcement officer of the Federal Government. The Attorney General represents the United States in legal matters generally and gives advice and opinions to the President and to the heads of the …
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland was sworn in as the 86 th Attorney General of the United States on March 11, 2021. As the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Garland leads the Justice Department’s 115,000 employees, who work across the United States and in more than 50 countries worldwide. Under his leadership, the Department of Justice is …
Apr 21, 2015 · Best Answer. Copy. to give the president and vice president legal advice. The office of U.S. Attorney General was originally created to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which...
Attorney General | Years of service |
---|---|
Merrick Garland | 2021-Present |
Charles Lee | 1795-1801 |
William Bradford | 1794-1795 |
Edmund Jennings Randolph | 1789-1794 |
The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the Office of the Attorney General which evolved over the years into the head of the Department of Justice and chief law enforcement officer of the Federal Government.
The Attorney General represents the United States in legal matters generally and gives advice and opinions to the President and to the heads of the executive departments of the Government when so requested. In matters of exceptional gravity or importance the Attorney General appears in person before the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General represents the United States in legal matters generally and gives advice and opinions to the President and to the heads ...
The Department of Justice traces its beginning to the First Congress meeting in New York in 1789, at which time the Congress devoted itself to creating the infrastructure for operating the Federal Government.
After meeting for several months the legislators passed a bill known as the Judiciary Act that provided for the organization and administration of the judicial branch of the new government, and included in that Act was a provision for appointment of “…a meet person, learned in the law, to act as attorney-general for the United States…”.
The Attorney General, however, is part of the executive branch along with the President and the rest of the President's Cabinet. The President appoints the Attorney General. This means the Attorney General is nominated by the President and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Also note that there's no set time period on the Attorney General's term.
Remember that the judicial branch includes the United States Supreme Court and all other federal courts. The Attorney General, however, is part of the executive branch along with the President and the rest of the President's Cabinet. The President appoints the Attorney General. This means the Attorney General is nominated by ...
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 attorney general to head the new department was amos t. akerman , of Georgia, appointed by President ulysses s. grant in 1870.
A state attorney general's office is typically a part of the executive branch of the state government.
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 title attorney-general of England was first used in 1461. The attorney-general acted as assistant to the House of Lords but had ceased to attend by 1700.
Attorney General Wirt (1817–29), under Presidents james monroe and john quincy adams, was the first to comprehend fully the officeholder's need for administrative structure. During his tenure, the attorney general was finally given government office space, a transcribing clerk, and a small fund for office supplies.
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.
The US Attorney General is considered the federal government’s top legal official, responsible for advising the President and his cabinet on matters of the law and managing the Justice Department’s many offices and departments. Although the AG post is held by a lawyer, the attorney general is often viewed as much a political figure as a legal one. The AG’s office has been no stranger to controversy over the years, including during the administration of George W. Bush, which has seen three different attorneys general become involved in the government’s use of illegal and unconstitutional tactics in its fight against terrorism.
In 2007 all of Washington, DC, was abuzz over revelations that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had fired eight US Attorneys, some for apparently political reasons. The dismissed attorneys had all been appointed by President George W. Bush more than four years earlier.
In 2004, as then-Attorney General John Ashcroft lay in a hospital bed recovering from having gallbladder surgery, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card tried to convince Ashcroft to renew the administration’s secret surveillance program which had just been deemed illegal by the AG’s legal advisors. Ashcroft’s top assistant, James Comey, rushed to the hospital to stop Gonzales and Card from trying to manipulate the seriously ill Ashcroft into continuing the program.
A native of San Antonio, Texas, Alberto Gonzales graduated from Rice University and Harvard Law School. Gonzales served in the US Air Force between 1973 and 1975 and attended the US Air Force Academy between 1975 and 1977.