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Dept. of Justice
Established:June 22, 1870
Activated:July 1, 1870
Attorney General:Alberto Gonzales
Deputy Atty. Gen.:Paul McNulty
Budget:*]22.2 billion (2005)
Employees:112,557 (2005)
Justice Department redirects here. For other meanings of the term, see Department of Justice.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans (see ). The DOJ is administered by the United States Attorney General (see ), one of the original members of the cabinet.

History

Initially the Attorney General was a one-person, part-time job, established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, but this grew with the bureaucracy. At one time the Attorney General gave legal advice to U.S. Congress as well as the President, but this had stopped by 1819 on account of the workload involved.

In 1867, the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, led by William Lawrence, conducted an inquiry into the creation of a "law department" headed by the Attorney General and composed of the various department solicitors and district attorneys. On February 19, 1868, Lawrence introduced a bill in Congress to create the Department of Justice. This first bill was unsuccessful, however, as Lawrence could not devote enough time to ensure its passage owing to his occupation with the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.

A second bill was introduced to Congress by Rhode Island Representative Thomas Jenckes on February 25, 1870, and both the Senate and House passed the bill. President Ulysses S. Grant then signed the bill into law on June 22, 1870. At last, eighty-one years after the establishment of the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Justice was established as it officially began operations on July 1, 1870.

The bill, called the "Act to Establish the Department of Justice", did little to change the Attorney General's responsibilities, and his salary and tenure remained the same. The law did create a new office, that of Solicitor General, to supervise and conduct government litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Various efforts, none entirely successful, have been made to determine the meaning of the Latin motto appearing on the Department of Justice seal, Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur. It is not even known exactly when the original version of the DOJ seal itself was adopted, or when the motto first appeared on the seal. The most authoritative opinion of the DOJ suggests that the motto refers to the Attorney General (and thus to the Department of Justice) "who prosecutes on behalf of justice (or the Lady Justice)".

Organization

Leadership offices

Divisions

Law enforcement and corrections agencies

Offices

Community programs

Other offices and programs

In March 2003, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service was abolished and its functions transferred to the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Board of Immigration Appeals which review decisions made by government officials under Immigration and Nationality law remain under jursidiction of the Department of Justice. Similarly the Office of Domestic Preparedness left the Justice Department for the Department of Homeland Security.

See also

External links

United States federal law enforcement agencies | United States Department of Justice | 1870 establishments

US-Justizministerium | Ameerika Ühendriikide Justiitsministeerium | Justisdepartementet (USA) | Lista över USA:s justitieministrar | 美国司法部

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "United States Department of Justice".

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