User blog:JonathanMarkoff/Attorney General of the United States

The United States Attorney General (A.G.) is the head of the United States Department of Justice per 28 U.S.C. § 503, concerned with all legal affairs, and is the chief lawyer of the United States government. In cases of the federal death penalty, the power to seek the death penalty rests with the Attorney General.

Under Article II Section 2 of the Constitution, the Attorney General is nominated by the President and appointed with the advice and consent of Congress. The Constitution is clear that the Attorney General may be impeached by Congress. As to whether the Attorney General may be summarily removed by the President, no provision of the Constitution grants this power. The decisional law suggests that the President has the power to remove an official engaged in purely executive functions or an official whose duties immediately affect the President's ability to fulfill his constitutional responsibilities, (Bowsher v. Synar, 1986), but provides little or no guidance as to whether the office of Attorney General falls within these general guidelines.

Harry Turtledove has occasionally fictionalized the office of Attorney General.

Joe Steele
During the 20-year administration of President Joe Steele, the Attorney General's office became another branch of Steele's uncompromising quest to rid the United States of internal enemies. AG Andy Wyszynski ruthlessly applied the death penalty and other harsh sentences for convicted wreckers, spies, and other undesirables.

Literary comment
The above applies only to the novel. The short story does not mention the office of the Attorney General.

Other Attorneys General
Edwin M. Stanton appears in The Guns of the South as Secretary of War, having been Attorney General before the POD.

James McReynolds appears in Joe Steele (and its source story) as a Supreme Court justice, having been AG before the relevant POD.

Former Attorneys General Robert Jackson and Francis Biddle have brief background roles in The Man With the Iron Heart as Nuremberg Trials prosecutors.

Historical Attorneys General in non-AG roles
James McReynolds appears in American Empire as a citizen of the Confederate States.