The Judiciary Act of 1789, ch. 20, sec. 35, 1 Stat. 73, 92-93 (1789) created the Office of the Attorney General, providing for the appointment of "a meet person, learned in the law, to act as attorney-general for the United States." The Act provides that the duty of the Attorney General "shall be 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." The 1789 Act did not give the Attorney General Cabinet rank, but President George Washington needed the Attorney General to be present at all of the Cabinet meetings because of the many legal aspects in the discussions held therein. With the continued presence of the Attorney General at the Cabinet meetings, the Attorney General became recognized as a Cabinet post. The Attorney General is appointed by the President and is subject to confirmation by the Senate.
Originally, the Office of the Attorney General was a one-person part-time position. The workload of the Attorney General quickly became too much for one person, necessitating the hiring of several assistants. With an increasing amount of work to be done, private attorneys were also retained to work on cases. In addition to litigation, the Office of the Attorney General issued opinions on a wide range of subjects constituting a body of legal precedent. In the early years, Congress asked the Attorney General to act as its counselor and issue opinions for its intended actions. Giving opinions to the President, to the heads of the executive departments, and to Congress proved too much for the Office of the Attorney General. In 1819, then Attorney General William Wirt sent a letter to President Monroe informing him that from that time forward the Office of the Attorney General would operate pursuant to the Judiciary Act of 1789 and give opinions only to the President and to the heads of the executive departments. However, the workload continued to increase.
In 1870, after the post-Civil War increase in the amount of litigation involving the United States necessitated the very expensive retention of a large number of private attorneys to help handle the workload, a concerned Congress passed the Act to Establish the Department of Justice, ch. 150, 16 Stat. 162 (1870). The 1870 Act made the Attorney General head of the Department and created the Office of the Solicitor General to assist the Attorney General. The 1870 Act also gave the Attorney General and the Department control over federal law enforcement. Later, the addition of the Deputy Attorneys General and the formation of the Divisions provided for further management of the Attorney General's and the Department's workload. Today, the Attorney General heads the world's largest law office and oversees the central agency for enforcement of federal laws.
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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 1841-1841 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 Ebenzer 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 1881-1881 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 T. 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 Roosevelt Tom C. Clark 1945-1949 Truman J. Howard McGrath 1949-1952 Truman James P. McGranery 1952-1953 Truman Herbert Brownell,Jr. 1953-1957 Eisenhower William P. Rogers 1957-1961 Eisenhower Robert F. Kennedy 1961-1964 Kennedy Nicholas deB. Katzenbach 1965-1966 Johnson Ramsey Clark 1967-1969 Johnson John N. Mitchell 1969-1972 Nixon Richard G. Kleindienst 1972-1973 Nixon Elliot L. Richardson 1973-1973 Nixon William B. Saxbe 1974-1975 Nixon Edward H. Levi 1975-1977 Ford Griffin B. Bell 1977-1979 Carter Benjamin R. Civiletti 1979-1981 Carter William French Smith 1981-1985 Reagan Edwin Meese III 1985-1988 Reagan Richard Thornburgh 1988-1991 Reagan & George Bush William Barr 1991-1993 George Bush Janet Reno 1993-2001 Clinton John Ashcroft 2001- George W. Bush