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.
INDIVIDUAL
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