Federal Organization of Legal Functions

Abstract

Varied tasks throughout the vast field of activities of the executive branch of the federal government can be performed only by persons with training in one of more branches of law. The tasks run all the way from the administration of locally established rules and regulations of the several government agencies to the argument of fundamentally important constitutional questions before the Supreme Court. Down through the years of American history there has been conflict of opinion as to the proper mode of organizing the legal work of the government. It is contended, on the one hand, that functions of a highly specialized and highly professionalized character such as those of law ought, in the interest of symmetry and efficiency, to be integrated under centralized management. To a limited extent, such integration has been brought about in the Department of Justice. On the other hand, it is contended that the work of lawyers merely aids in the performance of more fundamental classifications of work done by the government, and that organization should be in terms of such topics as finance, foreign affairs, commerce, agriculture, and labor, with legal tasks grouped in subordinate categories and subject to control only by the respective heads of the major organizations. In line with this contention, all major departments and most other agencies have staffs of lawyers not directly connected with the Department of Justice.

Bureaucratic Discretion, Agency Structure,and Democratic Responsiveness: The Case of the United States Attorneys

“…No agency can bring civil or criminal charges without agreement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the attorneys are the DOJ's field prosecutors. If investigating agencies bring cases directly to her, the attorney acts as agency counsel in the prosecution of violations of federal laws (see Swisher 1939). If the agency forwards a case with a prosecutive memorandum, the attorney chooses whether to complete the investigation and prosecute.…”

“…during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration for tax violations (Sindler 1956), Southern law officers for civil rights violations (Swisher 1948), and libel against the Indianapolis News over the acquisition of Panama Canal land (Beard and Hayes 1909).…”