deal with hostile Indians, and to cope with the bad men of the West in frontier days. Many of the disturbances of the Wild West were between individuals, and the six-shooter was the instrument of pacification. But there were lone bandits and gangs of outlaws, who robbed the mails, stole the gold being transferred by Wells Fargo, held up trains, rustled horses and cattle, and even despoiled the wagon trains of settlers. Marshals shared the peace-keeping responsibilities of those lawless times with federal troops, but they were the civilian enforcement officers whose horses were always saddled and whose lives depended on being quicker on the draw than the desperado. During that period, competent district attorneys were hard to find. Most of them found it necessary to derive income from sources other than the fees they were paid by the government. Unscrupulous actions were reported to Washington but received little attention; after all they were isolated cases in a land that was far away. When Brigadier General Garland, commanding troops in New Mexico, demanded the removal of one district attorney, he described the official as "notoriously the greatest liar and blackguard in New Mexico." The 1789 Judiciary Act provided that marshals might summon troops in their district to aid them in quelling disorders. They used that authority in the South in Reconstruction days to an extent that annoyed citizens and the military; in 1878, Congress rescinded it. Since then, marshals have cooperated with soldiers in restoring order and preserving peace, but no civilian officer has commanded federal troops. If federal forces are needed now, they are ordered out by the President. Civil Rights Enforcement As officers of the courts, district attorneys and marshals have a duty to enforce the judgments of the courts. In recent years, this duty has involved them in "occasions of public disturbance" arising from resistance to court orders in civil rights cases. When it became evident that state authorities would offer forcible resistance to enrollment, under a court order, of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi, marshals were sent to effect his registration. They were reinforced by border patrolmen and Bureau of Prisons personnel and troops. In his 1962 report, the deputy attorney general stated laconically that "after quelling a riot with the assistance of the United States Army, Mr. Meredith's registration was effected." In June, 1963, marshals assisted three Negroes in gaining admission to the University of Alabama; in 1964, deputy marshals were stationed at the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama to ensure the safety of Negro students. Earlier, the widely publicized enforcement of court orders to admit Negroes to a segregated public school in Little Rock, Arkansas, saw the Justice Department dispatching a force of marshals recruited from other areas and President Eisenhower reinforcing them with federal troops. Confronted with this array of federal force and bulwarked by legal actions instituted by the district attorney under the supervision of an assistant attorney general, the governor of the state retreated from his position, and Negroes entered the school unmolested. In 1964, deputy marshals were assigned to protect a federal judge in Montgomery, Alabama, whose life had been threatened. They maintained order during hearings conducted by the Subversive Activities Control Board in Portland, Oregon, by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in Chicago, and by the United States Commission on Civil Rights in Jackson, Mississippi. Marshals also guard witnesses and their families in trials of members of crime syndicates, and witnesses who testify before grand juries; in 1964, they maintained order and security control in a trial of fourteen defendants in a narcotics case in New York. The chapters that follow, describing the work of the separate divisions, tell more of the civil rights and other Department activities in which the U.S. attorneys and marshals serve. APPENDIX I.-AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (FORTY-FIRST CONGRESS, SESS. II, 1870) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be, and is hereby established an executive department of the government of the United States, to be called the Department of Justice, of which the Attorney-General shall be the head. His duties, salary, and tenure of office shall remain as now fixed by law, except so far as they may be modified by this act. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That there shall be in said Department an officer learned in the law, to assist the Attorney-General in the performance of his duties, to be called the solicitor-general, and who, in case of a vacancy in the office of Attorney-General, or in his absence or disability, shall have power to exercise all the duties of that office. There shall also be continued in said Department the two other officers, learned in the law, called the assistants of the Attorney-General, whose duty it shall be to assist the Attorney-General and solicitor-general in the performance of their duties, as now required by law. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That from and after the time when this act takes effect, the solicitor of the treasury and his assistants, the solicitor of internal revenue, the solicitor and naval judge advocate general, who shall hereafter be known as the naval solicitor, and the clerks, messengers, and laborers employed in the office of the Attorney-General, and in the offices of the solicitor of the treasury, naval solicitor, and solicitor of internal revenue, and the law officer in the Department of State, now designated as the examiner of claims in said Department, shall be transferred from the Department with which they are now associated to the Department of Justice; and said officers shall exercise their functions under the supervision and control of the head of the Department of Justice. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That questions of law submitted to the Attorney-General for his opinion, except questions involving a construction of the Constitution of the United States, may be by him referred to such of his subordinates as he may deem appropriate, and he may require the written opinion thereon of the officer to whom the same may be referred; and if the opinion given by such officer shall be approved by the Attorney-General, such approval so indorsed thereon shall give the opinion the same force and effect as belong to the opinions of the Attorney-General. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That whenever the Attorney-General deems it necessary, he may require the solicitor-general to argue any case in which the government is interested before the court of claims; and as to cases coming by appeal from the court of claims to the Supreme Court of the United States, it shall be the duty of the Attorney-General and solicitor-geueral to conduct and argue them before that court as in other cases in which the United States is interested. And the Attorney-General may, whenever he deems it for the interest of the United States, conduct and argue any case in which the government is interested, in any court of the United States, or may require the solicitor-general or any officer of his Department to do so. And the solicitorgeneral, or any officer of the Department of Justice, may be sent by the Attorney-General to any State or district in the United States to attend to the interests of the United States in any suit pending in any of the courts of the United States, or in the courts of any State, or to attend to any other interest of the United States; for which service they shall receive, in addition to their salaries, their actual and necessary expenses, while so absent from the seat of government, the account thereof to be verified by affidavit. SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That whenever a question of law arises in the administration, either of the War or Navy Department, the cognizance of which is not given by statute to some other officer from whom the head of either of these Departments may require advice, the same shall be sent to the Attorney-General, to be by him referred to the proper officer in his Department provided for in this act, or otherwise disposed of as he may deem proper; and each head of any Department of the government may require the opinion of the Attorney-General on all questions of law arising in the administration of their respective Departments. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the duties enjoined upon the auditor of the Post-Office Department by the fourteenth section of the act entitled "An act to change the organization of the Post Office Department, and to provide more effectually for the settlement of the accounts thereof," passed July two, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, shall hereafter be performed by some officer of the Department of Justice, to be especially designated, under the direction of the Attorney-General, who shall also have the care of prosecutions for mail depredations and penal offenses against the postal laws. SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Attorney-General is hereby empowered to make all necessary rules and regulations for the government of said Department of Justice, and for the management and distribution of its business. SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the several officers hereinbefore transferred from the other Departments to the Department of Justice shall hold their respective offices until their successors are duly qualified; and the solicitor-general, and whenever vacancies occur, the assistants of the AttorneyGeneral, and all the solicitors and assistant solicitors mentioned in this act, shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. All the other officers, clerks, and employees in the said Department shall be appointed and be removable by the Attorney-General. SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the following annual salaries shall be paid to the officers hereinbefore mentioned: To the solicitor-general, seven thousand five hundred dollars; to each of the assistants of the AttorneyGeneral, five thousand dollars each; to the solicitor of the internal revenue, five thousand dollars; and to the other officers the salaries and fees now allowed by law; and the Attorney-General shall be allowed a stenographic clerk, with an annual salary of two thousand dollars, and he may appoint three additional clerks of the fourth class. SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That all moneys hereafter drawn out of the treasury upon the requisition of the Attorney-General, shall be disbursed by such one of the clerks herein provided for the Attorney-General as he may designate; and so much of the first section of the act making appropriations, passed March three, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, as provides that moneys drawn out of the treasury upon the requisition of the Attorney-General shall be disbursed by such disbursing officer as the Secretary of the Treasury may designate, is hereby repealed. SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the AttorneyGeneral to make an annual report to Congress, in January each year, of the business of the said Department of Justice, and any other matters appertaining thereto that he may deem proper, including the statistics of crime under the laws of the United States, and, as far as practicable, under the laws of the several States. SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the superintendent of the treasury building shall provide such suitable rooms in the treasury building as may be necessary to accommodate the officers and clerks of the said Department, or, to the extent that that may be found impracticable, to provide such rooms in some other building in the vicinity of said treasury building. SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That the Attorney-General may require any solicitor or officers of the Department of Justice to perform any duty required of said Department or any officer thereof; and the officers of the law department, under the direction of the Attorney-General, shall give all opinions and render all services requiring the skill of persons learned in the law, necessary to enable the President and heads of the executive Departments, and the heads of bureaus and other officers in such Departments to discharge their respective duties; and shall, for and on behalf of the United States, procure the proper evidence for, and conduct prosecute, or defend all suits and proceedings in the Supreme Court of the United States and in the court of claims, in which the United States, or any officer thereof, is a party or may be interested. And no fees shall be allowed or paid to any other attorney or counsel[1]or at law for any service herein required of the officers of the Department of Justice. SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That the supervisory powers now exercised by the Secretary of the Interior over the accounts of the district attorneys, marshals, clerks, and other officers of the courts of the United States, shall be exercised by the Attorney-General, who shall sign all requisitions for the advance or payment of moneys out of the treasury, on estimates or accounts, subject to the same control now exercised on like estimates or accounts by the first auditor or first comptroller of the treasury. SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That the Attorney-General shall have supervision of the conduct and proceedings of the various attorneys for the United States in the respective judicial districts, who shall make reports to him of their proceedings, and also of all other attorneys and counsel [1]ors employed in any cases or business in which the United States may be concerned. SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That it shall not be lawful for the Secretary of either of the executive Departments to employ attorneys or counsel at the expense of the United States; but such Departments, when in need of counsel or advice, shall call upon the Department of Justice, the officers of which shall attend to the same; and no counsel or attorney fees shall hereafter be allowed to any person or persons, besides the respective district attorneys and assistant district attorneys, for services in such capacity to the United States, or any branch or department of the government thereof, unless hereafter authorized by law, and then only on the certificate of the AttorneyGeneral that such services were actually rendered, and that the same could not be performed by the Attorney-General, or solicitor-general, or the officers of the department of justice, or by the district attorneys. And every attorney and counsel[1]or who shall be specially retained, under the authority of the Department of Justice, to assist in the trial of any case in which the government is interested, shall receive a commission from the head of said Department, as a special assistant to the Attorney-General, or to some one of the district attorneys, as the nature of the appointment may require, and shall take the oath required by law to be taken by the district attorneys, and shall be subject to all the liabilities imposed upon such officers by law. SEC. 18. And be it further enacted, That the Attorney-General shall from time to time cause to be edited and printed an edition of one thousand copies, at the government printing office, of such of the opinions of the law officers herein authorized to be given as he may deem valuable for preservation, in volumes which shall be as to the size, quality of paper, printing, and binding, of uniform style and appearance, as nearly as practicable, with the eighth volume of said opinions, published by Robert Farnham, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, which volumes shall contain proper head-notes, a complete and full index, and such footnotes as the Attorney-General may approve. Such volumes shall be distributed in such manner as the AttorneyGeneral may from hime to time prescribe. SEC. 19. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy. APPROVED, June 22, 1870. APPENDIX II.-ATTORNEYS GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, 1789-1967 Edmund Randolph, Sept. 26, 1789 to Jan. 2, 1794. Levi Lincoln, Mar. 5, 1801 to Mar. 3, 1805. John M. Berrien, Mar. 9, 1829 to July 20, 1831. Issac Toucey, June 21, 1848 to Mar. 3, 1849. John J. Crittenden, July 22, 1850 to Mar. 3, 1853 (second term). Caleb Cushing, Mar. 7, 1853 to Mar. 3, 1857. Jeremiah S. Black, Mar. 6, 1857 to Dec. 17, 1860. Edwin M. Stanton, Dec. 20, 1860 to Mar. 3, 1861. Edward Bates, Mar. 5, 1861 to Nov. 24, 1864. Kentucky. Johnson. Do. Charles Devens, Mar. 12, 1877 to Mar. 6, 1881. [From the Congressional Record, vol. 119, No. 195, Dec. 12, 1973] REMARKS OF SENATOR ERVIN ON INTRODUCING S. 2803 ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INDEPENDENT DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Mr. ERVIN. Mr. President, I introduce for appropriate reference a bill to establish the Department of Justice as an independent establishment of the United States. Events of the past months have strained many institutions of our country. While the strain has produced cracks in some of our institutions of government, the Government remains sound. The flexibility and strength of our system of government is due to the wisdom of the framers of the Constitution in allocating the powers and duties of government to the three separate branches and establishing a system of checks and balances to preserve the separation of powers. Our Government loses its strength and resiliency when one branch encroaches upon the powers of another and the separation of powers is disturbed. The flexibility which allows severe stresses and strains is, then, one of the strengths of our constitutional government. While flaws are revealed by stress, the inherent strengths of the institutions are also revealed. Now that flaws are apparent, the Congress must act to strengthen our governmental institutions by repairing the flaws. I strongly disagree with those who despair that Watergate and other events show an inherent weakness in our system of government. The wisdom embodied in our Constitution is most apparent in periods of stress. These events have shown the necessity of a free press, the necessity of an independent judiciary, and the necessity for Congress to maintain its constitutional role as a check on the executive branch. While many American institutions have been strained in the past months, some institutions such as the press and the judiciary have performed their historic or constitutional roles under these stresses; others have not. The Department of Justice is one of the governmental institutions most severely strained by Watergate and other events of the past months. These events have called into question the function of the Department of Justice, and have brought forth allegations, heard also in previous administrations, that the Department of Justice has been used for political purposes by the White House. A cornerstone of our system of justice is the faith of the American people in 33-875-74-25 |