United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice (see 28 U.S.C. § 503) concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The Attorney General is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government. The Attorney General serves as a member of the President's Cabinet, but is the only cabinet department head who is not given the title Secretary, besides the now defunct Postmaster General.
The Attorney General is nominated by the President of the United States and takes office after confirmation by the United States Senate. He or she serves at the pleasure of the President and can be removed by the President at any time; the Attorney General is also subject to impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial in the Senate for "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors."
The office of Attorney General was established by Congress by the Judiciary Act of 1789. The original duties of this officer were "to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the President of the United States, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments." Only in 1870 was the Department of Justice established to support the Attorney General in the discharge of his responsibilities.
As of February 3, 2009, the current Attorney General is Eric Holder. He was confirmed on February 2. Holder is the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and the first African-American to hold the position.
Living Former Attorneys General
Nicholas Katzenbach
Ramsey Clark
William B. Saxbe
Benjamin Civiletti
Edwin Meese
Dick Thornburgh
William Barr
Janet Reno
John Ashcroft
Alberto Gonzales
Michael Mukasey
Translation
The phrase "United States Attorney General" occurs as such in the following languages: English, German.
Translation(s) in other languages: Arabic: نائب عام للولايات المتحدة, Danish: Amerikanske justitsministre, Spanish: Fiscal General de los Estados Unidos, Basque: AEB Fiskal Nagusia, French: Attorney General des États-Unis, Indonesian: Jaksa Agung Amerika Serikat, Hebrew: התובע הכללי של ארצות הברית, Italian: Procuratore generale degli Stati Uniti, Japanese: アメリカ合衆国司法長官, Norwegian (Bokmål): Liste over Amerikas forente staters justisministre, Polish: Prokurator Generalny Stanów Zjednoczonych, Portuguese: Procurador-Geral dos Estados Unidos, Finnish: Yhdysvaltain oikeusministeri, Swedish: Lista över USA:s justitieministrar, Chinese: 美國總檢察長.
|
