Portal:Department of Justice/Section 1

From USApedia

Organization

Leadership offices

Divisions

Civil Rights Division

Law enforcement agencies

Several federal law enforcement agencies are administered by the Department of Justice:

  • United States Marshals Service (USMS) – The office of U.S. Marshal was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789. The U.S. Marshals Service was established as an agency in 1969, and it was elevated to full bureau status under the Justice Department in 1974.[5][6]
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – On July 26, 1908, a small investigative force was created within the Justice Department under Attorney General Charles Bonaparte. The following year, this force was officially named the Bureau of Investigation by Attorney General George W. Wickersham. In 1935, the bureau adopted its current name.[7]
  • Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) – the Three Prisons Act of 1891 created the federal prison system. Congress created the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1930 by Pub. L. No. 71–218, 46 Stat. 325, signed into law by President Hoover on May 14, 1930.[8][9][10]
  • National Institute of Corrections (NIC) – Founded in 1974, the National Institute of Corrections is organized under the Federal Bureau of Prisons and has a legislatively mandated mission to assist state and local correctional institutions, and to manage the American Federal Prison System by keeping records of inmates.
  • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) – Except for a brief period during Prohibition, ATF's predecessor bureaus were part of the Department of the Treasury for more than two hundred years.[11] ATF was first established by Department of Treasury Order No. 221, effective July 1, 1972; this order "transferred the functions, powers, and duties arising under laws relating to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives from the Internal Revenue Service to ATF.[12] In 2003, under the terms of the Homeland Security Act, ATF was split into two agencies – the new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was transferred to the Department of Justice, while the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) was retained by the Department of the Treasury.[11]
  • Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – Created in 1973 as part of the war on drugs, the DEA was formed from various previously existing law enforcement agencies that were parts of either the Department of Justice, Department of the Treasury or the Food and Drug Administration. The DEA enforces the Controlled Substances Act and also interdicts foreign drug trafficking.
  • Office of the Inspector General (OIG) – The Office of Inspector General performs basic internal auditing functions, and has the power to make arrests and prosecute members of the Department of Justice who are found to be in violation of laws regulating conduct of government officials.

Offices

Other offices and programs

In March 2003, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service was abolished and its functions transferred to the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Board of Immigration Appeals, which review decisions made by government officials under Immigration and Nationality law, remain under jurisdiction of the Department of Justice. Similarly the Office of Domestic Preparedness left the Justice Department for the Department of Homeland Security, but only for executive purposes. The Office of Domestic Preparedness is still centralized within the Department of Justice, since its personnel are still officially employed within the Department of Justice.

In 2003, the Department of Justice created LifeAndLiberty.gov, a website that supported the USA PATRIOT Act. It was criticized by government watchdog groups for its alleged violation of U.S. Code Title 18 Section 1913, which forbids money appropriated by Congress to be used to lobby in favor of any law, actual or proposed.[13] The website has since been taken offline.

On October 5, 2021, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has announced the formation of a "Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team" during the Aspen Cyber Summit.[14]

  1. Gregory Sisk & Michael F. Noone, Litigation with the Federal Government (4th ed.) (American Law Institute, 2006), pp. 10–11.
  2. Former Assistant Attorneys General: Civil Division Archived January 31, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, U.S. Department of Justice.
  3. Arnold W. Reitze, Air Pollution Control Law: Compliance and Enforcement (Environmental Law Institute, 2001), p. 571.
  4. Cornell W. Clayton, The Politics of Justice: The Attorney General and the Making of Legal Policy (M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1992), p. 34.
  5. Larry K. Gaines & Victor E. Kappeler, Policing in America (8th ed. 2015), pp. 38–39.
  6. United States Marshals Service Then ... and Now (Office of the Director, United States Marshals Service, U.S. Department of Justice, 1978).
  7. The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide (Oryz Press, 1999, ed. Athan G. Theoharis), p. 102.
  8. Mitchel P. Roth, Prisons and Prison Systems: A Global Encyclopedia (Greenwood, 2006), pp. 278–79.
  9. Dean J. Champion, Sentencing: A Reference Handbook (ABC-CLIO, Inc.: 2008), pp. 22–23.
  10. James O. Windell, Looking Back in Crime: What Happened on This Date in Criminal Justice History? (CRC Press, 2015), p. 91.
  11. 11.0 11.1 Transfer of ATF to U.S. Department of Justice[permanent dead link], Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
  12. Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau Archived April 7, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Federal Register.
  13. Dotgovwatch.com Archived November 9, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, October 18, 2007
  14. "DOJ Forms Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team - October 6, 2021" (in en-US). 2021-10-06. https://dailynewsbrief.com/2021/10/06/doj-forms-cryptocurrency-enforcement-team/. 


Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named 'lower-alpha', but no corresponding <references group='lower-alpha'/> tag was found