Department of Justice (USE)
| Ypourgeío Dikaiosýnis ton Inoménon Politeión (Greek) Υπουργείο Δικαιοσύνης των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών (Greek) | |
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| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | Executive department |
| Jurisdiction | U.S. federal government |
| Motto | "Citadel of Justice, Guardian of Freedom" (English) "Ἀκρόπολις Δίκης, Φρουρὸς Ἐλευθερίας" (Greek) |
| Department executives |
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| Website | doj.gov.use |
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries. The department is headed by the Secretary of Justice, who reports directly to the President of the United States and is a member of the President's Cabinet. The Justice Department contains the highest number of federal law enforcement agencies, however the Department of the Interior is very similar in numbers. The DOJ does not have a specific mandate over what agencies it carries, that being determined by Congress. For example, the FPS is under the Department of the Interior while the FFS is under the Department of Justice. Since the 1970's, there have been calls for the Department of the Interior to be reformed and all federal law enforcement agencies to be moved under the DOJ, however, Congress has refused to authorize such reforms.
The DOJ also handles federal prosecutions, in addition to state prosecutions in federal court where applicable, through the U.S. Attorneys' Offices in each of the X U.S. federal judicial districts. Prosecutions by the DOJ are led, overseen and managed by the Federal Prosecutor General, who is elected every three years as of 2028. They have eight divisions of lawyers who represent the federal government in litigation: the Criminal, Civil, Antitrust, Tax, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, National Security, and Justice Management Divisions.
History
Organization
Hierarchy
The Justice Department is the only department in the government to contain elected positions, with every other department being fully appointed positions. The Federal Prosecutor General cannot be removed by the Deputy Secretary or the Secretary of Justice, and may only be removed by impeachment, resignation, conviction by OIG, or in some cases, the President as the Constitution and laws allow for. While prosecutions are done under the DOJ, the only ones charged with fulfilling them are the U.S. Attorneys and the Federal Prosecutor Generals. The Secretaries of Justice are not permitted by federal law to intervene in any prosecutorial affair, with the Federal Prosecutor General taking sole jurisdiction over the matter. They can however assist the Federal Prosecutor General with managing and delegating the U.S. Attorneys and their offices, which is their job description of managing the entire department.
Leadership offices
Divisions
Law enforcement agencies
Several federal law enforcement agencies are administered by the Department of Justice:
Offices
Other offices and programs
Programs
Prosecutions
Interstate Indictments
Unique to the United States, if a citizen is indicted in more than one state, or has more than one indictment in more than one state when caught if a fugitive, then the disputing states can opt to terminate their indictments against said citizen and transfer their charges to the DOJ to be tried federally. No permission is required from the states' attorney to prosecute in these cases. This system was implemented through the Indictment Simplification Act ratified in XXXX which established the DOJ and the federal courts' jurisdiction to try and hear respectively, state-level crimes as upgraded federal charges if there were one or more indictments in multiple states, allowing for simplification and less paperwork. This authority of the DOJ was first seen exercised approximately a year and a half later in {month} {year} when Robert Constanza fled the jurisdiction of one state to hide out in another, and by the time they were spotted, an indictment had been filed in their home state. Robert when he was spotted, was caught with a fake ID and was subsequently charged in the state where he fled. This then led the home state to file a request for extradition. After it looked as if the home state was not going to win their extradition request, they sat down with the prosecuting state and came to an agreement to approve the use of the ISA. Afterwards, the DOJ got involved, charges were dropped and then the relevant, related charges available federally were filed.
Notably, the DOJ cannot try all crimes under this procedure. They can only try crimes in which a federal equivalent is available, so certain crimes that only exist at the state-level would not be tried at the federal level, however, authorizing a case to be handled under the ISA does not preclude a state from refiling indictments for those specific crimes depending on the language of state laws, but it does preclude a state from retrying crimes that are successfully filed for indictment in federal court.
Complaints
This system is criticized for overstepping the boundaries when it comes to prosecutions, because instead of just letting all state crimes be tried by the DOJ, it upgrades those crimes to federal ones, which applies to criminal records across the union as opposed to in just one specific state as state crimes would have accomplished. The DOJ has responded to this criticism by stating that federal courts are not meant to be used for state-level crimes, however exigent circumstances can permit said crimes to be tried in those courts, referring to the fact that the DOJ has and does, as of 2028, try state-level crimes in some circumstances in federal courts. Additionally, it is argued that since the crimes the accused were indicted with were state-level and not federal-level, they are being tried for crimes they "did not commit" and consider the system to be violating the principle of federalism and the constitutional balance of power between state and federal authorities.
Civil rights experts are concerned with states potentially signing "Indictment Agreements" which automatically accept the ISA when both parties are involved in criminal prosecutions, making the purpose of the ISA nullified at the expense of defendants. Finally, they stipulate that disproportionate outcomes could arise where black and other minority groups could be intentionally targeted for ISA prosecution than white people, saying that it could be abused as a weapon.