United States Department of Justice

The U.S. Department of Justice is responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice in the United States. The department was formed in 1870 during the Ulysses S. Grant administration. The office of the Attorney General was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 as a part-time job for one person.

About United States Department of Justice in brief

Summary United States Department of JusticeThe U.S. Department of Justice is responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice in the United States. The department was formed in 1870 during the Ulysses S. Grant administration. It administers several federal law enforcement agencies, including the U. S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DOJ is also responsible for reviewing the conduct of local law enforcement as directed by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The office of the Attorney General was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 as a part-time job for one person, but grew with the bureaucracy. On December 23, 2020, following the resignation of William Barr as attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen became the acting attorney general.

Rosen resigned once President Joseph Biden took office on January 20, 2021. That same day, Biden appointed DOJ career official Robert M. Wilkinson to serve as acting attorney General while the nomination of Merrick Garland to be attorney general is considered by the Senate. The Department’s immediate function was to preserve civil rights. It set about fighting against domestic terrorist groups who had been using both violence and litigation to oppose the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. In 1884, control of federal prisons was transferred to the new department from the Department of Interior. In 1924, a women’s prison facility for women was established in Alderson, West Virginia, at Alderson Women’s Penitentiary. In 1933, a prison facility at Leavenworth, New York, was established for women.