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Department of Justice Building

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

MARCH 2004

Introduction
Books - General
Books - On Individual Attorneys General
Periodicals
Chart Showing Attorneys General

 

INTRODUCTION

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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BOOKS and MEDIA

GENERAL

Annual Accountability Report, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, DC: Department of Justice, 1998-. (Formerly Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States).

Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States. Washington, DC: Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, 1870-1994.

Attorneys General Forum on C-SPAN. West Lafayette, IN :Purdue University, Public Affairs Video Archives. 1995, 1996.

Attorneys General of the United States 1789-1979. Washington, DC: Department of Justice, 1980.

Attorneys General of the United States 1789-1985. Washington, DC: Department of Justice, 1985.

Baker, Nancy V. Conflicting Loyalties: Law and Politics in the Attorney General's Office, 1789-1990. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1992.

Clayton, Cornell W. The Politics of Justice: The Attorney General and the Making of Legal Policy. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1992.

Cummings, Homer and Carl McFarland. Federal Justice: Chapters in the History of Justice and the Federal Executive. New York, NY: MacMillan Company, 1937.

Dodge, Arthur J. Origin and Development of the Office of the Attorney General. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1929. (Also 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 1929. H. Doc. 510).

Elliff, John T. Crime, Dissent, and the Attorney-General: the Justice Department in the 1960's. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1971.

Harris, Richard. Justice: The Crisis of Law, Order, and Freedom in America. New York, NY: E.P. Dutton, 1970.

Huston, Luther A. The Department of Justice. New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1967.

Huston, Luther A., Arthur Selwyn Miller, Samuel Krislov, and Robert G. Dixon, Jr. Roles of the Attorney General of the United States. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1968.

Langeluttig, Albert George. The Department of Justice of the United States. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins' Press, 1927.

Meador, Daniel J. The President, the Attorney General, and the Department of Justice. Charlottesville, VA.: White Burkett Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, 1980.

Powell, H. Jefferson. The Constitution and the Attorneys General. Durham, N.C. : Carolina Academy Press, 1999.

200th Anniversary of the Office of the Attorney General, 1789-1989. Washington, DC: Department of Justice, Office of Attorney General and Justice Management Division, 1991.

 


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INDIVIDUAL

Anderson, Paul, Janet Reno: Doing the Right Thing. New York, NY: Wiley, 1994.

Bell, Griffin B. and Ronald J. Ostrow. Taking Care of the Law. New York, NY: Morrow, 1982.

Biddle, Francis. In Brief Authority. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962.

Black, Jeremiah S. and Chauncey Black. Essays and Speeches of Jeremiah S. Black: With a Biographical Sketch. New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1885.

Brigance, William Norwood. Jeremiah Sullivan Black: A Defender of the Constitution and the Ten Commandments. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934.

Brownell, Herbert. Advising Ike: The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1993.

Cain, Marvin R. Lincoln's Attorney General: Edward Bates of Missouri. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1965.

Coben, Stanley. A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1963.

Coleman, Ann Mary Butler (Crittenden). The Life of John J.Crittenden: With Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches. Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott & Company, 1871.

Conway, Moncure Daniel. Omitted Chapters of History: Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia: First Attorney-General United States, Secretary of State. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1888.

Cummings, Homer and Carl Brent Swisher. Selected Papers of Homer Cummings, Attorney General of the United States, 1933-1939. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939.

David, Lester and Irene David. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Folk Hero. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead, 1986.

De Toledano, Ralph. R.F.K.: The Man Who Would Be President. New York, NY: Putnam, 1967.

Fine, Sidney. Frank Murphy. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1975.

Fuess, Claude M. The Life of Caleb Cushing. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1923.

Gorham, George C. Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton. Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899.

Harrison, Lowell H. John Breckinridge: Jeffersonian Republican. Louisville, KY: The Filson Club, 1969.

Hodgson, Michael Catherine. Caleb Cushing: Attorney General of the United States, 1853-1857. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1955.

Kennedy, John P. Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt: Attorney-General of the United States. Philadelphia, PA: Blanchard and Lea, 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1856 editions.

Kirwan, Albert D. John J. Crittenden: The Struggle for the Union. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1962.

Kleindienst, Richard G. Justice: The Memoirs of Attorney General Richard Kleindienst. Ottawa, IL: Jameson Books, 1985.

Kmiec, Douglas W. The Attorney General's Lawyer: Inside the Meese Justice Department. New York, NY: Praeger, 1992.

Lasky, Victor. Robert F. Kennedy: The Myth and the Man. New York, NY: Trident Press, 1968.

Lewis, Walker. Without Fear or Favor: A Biography of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.

Mason, Alpheus Thomas. Harlan Fiske Stone: Pillar of the Law. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1956.

McDevitt, Matthew. Joseph McKenna: Associate Justice of the United States. New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 1974.

Meese, Edwin. Major Policy Statements of the Attorney General: Edwin Meese III, 1985-1988. Washington, DC: Department of Justice, 1989.

Meese, Edwin. With Reagan: The Inside Story. Lanham, MD: Ragnery Gateway, 1992.

Navasky, Victor S. Kennedy Justice. New York, NY: Atheneum, 1977.

Pinkney, William. The Life of William Pinkney. New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1853.

Powell, J.H. Richard Rush: Republican Diplomat, 1780-1859. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1942.

Richardson, Elliot. The Creative Balance: Government, Politics, and the Individual in America's Third Century. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976.

Ross, Douglas. Robert F. Kennedy, Apostle of Change. New York, NY: Trident Press, 1968.

Savidge, Eugene Coleman. Life of Benjamin Harris Brewster: With Discourses and Addresses. Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1891.

Schumacher, Alvin J. Thunder on Capitol Hill: The Life of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Milwaukee, WI: Bruce Publishing Company, 1964.

Smith, William French. Law and Justice in the Reagan Administration: The Memoirs of an Attorney General. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1991.

Steiner, Bernard C. Life of Reverdy Johnson. Baltimore, MD: Norman, Remington Company, 1914.

Steiner, Bernard C. Life of Roger Brooke Taney: Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1970; reprint, Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins Company, 1922).

Thomas, Benjamin P. and Harold M. Hyman. Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln's Secretary of War. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.

Thompson, Robert E. and Hortense Myers. Robert F. Kennedy: The Brother Within. New York, NY: MacMillan Company, 1962.

Tyler, Samuel. Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Baltimore, MD: J. Murphy& Company, 1872.

 


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PERIODICALS

Barrett, John Q., All or Nothing, or Maybe Cooperation: Attorney General Power, Conduct, and Judgment in Relation to the Work of an Independent Counsel, 49 Mercer Law Review 519 (Winter 1998).

Bell, Griffin B., The Attorney General: The Federal Government's Chief Lawyer and Chief Litigator, or One Among Many?, 46 Fordham Law Review 1049 (May 1978).

Biden, Joseph R., Jr., Balancing Law and Politics: Senate Oversight of the Attorney General Office, 23 John Marshall Law Review 151 (Winter 1990).

Bloch, Susan Low, The Early Role of the Attorney General in Our Constitutional Scheme: In the Beginning There Was Pragmatism, 1989 Duke Law Journal 561 (June 1989).

Campbell, Robin, Issues of Consistency in the Federal Death Penalty: a Roundtable Discussion on the Role of the U.S. Attorney. 14 Federal Sentencing Review 52-59 (2001).

Dellinger, Walter, The Attorney General's First Separation of Powers Opinion, 13 Constitutional Commentary 309 (Winter 1996).

Dellinger, Walter, The Constitutionality of the Bank Bill: the Attorney General's First Constitutional Law Opinions, 44 Duke Law Journal 110 (October 1994).

Harriger, Katy J., Damned If She Does and Damned If She Doesn't: the Attorney General and the Independent Counsel Statute, 86 Georgetown Law Journal 2097 (July 1998).

Key, Sewall, The Legal Work of the Federal Government, 25 Virginia Law Review 165 (November 1938).

Learned, Henry Barrett, The Attorney-General and the Cabinet, 24 Political Science Quarterly 444 (September 1909).

Maguire, Paula K., The Attorney General: Political Loyalty v. Professional Responsibility--The Ethical Challenge in Serving Three Masters, 23 John Marshall Law Review 229 (Winter 1990).

McGinnis, John O., Models of the Opinion Function of the Attorney General: a Normative, Descriptive and Historical Prolegomenon, 15 Cardozo Law Review 375 (October 1993).

Nealon, Rita W., The Opinion Function of the Federal Attorney General, 25 New York University Law Review 825 (October 1950).

Noble, Ronald K., The Independent Counsel Versus the Attorney General in a Classified Information Procedures Act-Independent Counsel Statute Case, 33 Boston College Law Review 539 (May 1992).

Norton, Jerry E., Ethics and the Attorney General, 74 Judicature 203 (January 1991).

Palmer, Robert E., The Confrontation of the Legislative and Executive Branches: An Examination of the Constitutional Balance of Powers and the Role of the Attorney General, 11 Pepperdine Law Review 331 (January 1984).

Powell, Jefferson, William Wirt and the Invention of the Public Lawyer, 4 Green Bag 2d 297-302 (Spring 2001).

Rogovin, Mitchell, The Office of the Attorney General: "Not Properly Political", 9 Journal of Law and Politics 317 (Winter 1993).

Tyler, Harold R., Jr., The Attorney General of the United States-Counsel to the President or to the Government?, 45 Albany Law Review 1 (Fall 1980).

 


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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           1841-1841              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


 

Updated: March 25, 2004
URL: agbib2004.htm