State attorney general

History

The concept of a state attorney general originates with the attorneys general of the Thirteen Colonies, who in turn were modeled after the Attorney General for England and Wales. The first recorded appointment of an attorney general in the colonies was Virginia's appointment of Richard Lee I in 1643. The office may have existed for some time in a colony before it was recorded in official records. For example, Maryland was settled in 1634 but an attorney general is not mentioned in its records until 1658. In the colonial era, the office was poorly defined, and the pay was terrible and not commensurate to the scope and amount of work. The primitive state of statutory law in the colonies meant that practicing English law required a strong grasp of the common law to fill in the gaps. This was quite a problem when most of the people who actually understood the common law were still in England.

Of the 50 states in the Union, 34 states created or continued the office in their state constitution, eight others created the office in statutory law at the time of statehood, and eight others did not have an attorney general when they became states. A few states were slow to establish the office. Vermont's 1793 constitution mentions an attorney general but the legislature did not actually pass legislation to implement that constitutional provision until 1904. Some states went through the odd exercise of creating the office, abolishing it, then reestablishing it. Specifically, Illinois (1848-1867), Indiana (1826-1855), Maryland (1851-1864), and Massachusetts (1843-1849) all went through periods of disestablishing and reestablishing their state attorney general offices. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and all the inhabited federal territories now have an attorney general or chief legal officer.

Selection

The most prevalent method of selecting a state's attorney general is by popular election. 43 states have an elected attorney general. Elected attorneys general serve a four-year term, except in Vermont, where the term is two years.

Seven states do not popularly elect an attorney general. In Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Wyoming, the attorney general is appointed by the governor. The attorney general in Tennessee is appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court for an eight-year term. In Maine, the attorney general is elected by the state Legislature for a two-year term.

The District of Columbia and two U.S. territories, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, elect their attorneys general for a four-year term. 2014 marked the first year that the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands held an election for the office. In American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the attorney general is appointed by the governor. In Puerto Rico, the attorney general is officially called the secretary of justice, but is commonly known as the Puerto Rico attorney general.

Many states have passed term limits limiting the selection to 2 consecutive terms (9 states); 2 terms maximum (4 states), but 33 states have no term limits.

Duties

The specific duties of a state attorney general vary significantly from state to state, but there are several duties common to most offices:

• Control of litigation involving the state (representing the state at the trial and appellate levels in various types of litigation);
• Chief legal officer of the state (chief legal advisor to the governor and various state government agencies);
• Drafting advisory opinions on state law;
• Public advocacy (i.e., child support enforcement, consumer protection, state-level antitrust enforcement, utilities regulation, and crime victim advocacy);
• Criminal law enforcement (most attorneys general have relatively limited authority to initiate criminal prosecutions, but most are responsible for responding to defendants' appeals from prosecutions initiated in trial courts by locally-elected district attorneys);
• Law reform (i.e., serving on a law reform commission);
• Exercising investigative authority (i.e., leading investigations of government misconduct, malfeasance, individual criminal activity, or issues of substantial public interest); and
• Setting public policy (invoking the authority of the statewide office as a platform to "speak with authority and influence on major questions" involving law and justice).

Defense of the state in federal lawsuits

State attorneys general enforce both state and federal laws. Because they are sworn to uphold the United States' constitution and laws as well as the state's, they may decline to defend a state law in a federal preemption case.

Organization

Two of the most common management models for organizing a state attorney general office are the "chief deputy model" and the "multideputy cabinet model".

In the "chief deputy model", the state attorney general delegates supervisory authority over all substantive divisions to a chief deputy attorney general, who acts as the de facto chief executive officer and presides over executive committee meetings.

In the "multideputy cabinet model", there is no chief deputy. The office's substantive divisions are consolidated under a small number of first assistant or chief assistant attorneys general who together form the office's executive committee and function as a de facto cabinet to the state attorney general.

Current attorneys general

The current party composition of the state attorneys general is:

• 23 Democrats
• 26 Republicans

The composition for the District of Columbia and the 5 populated territories is:

• 2 Democrats
• 1 Republican
• 2 Non-partisan
• 1 New Progressive

Rows of the attorney general table below are color coded indicating the political party of the office holder.

Notes

References

References

1. (1990). "State Attorneys General: Powers and Responsibilities". BNA Books.
2. (1990). "State Attorneys General: Powers and Responsibilities". BNA Books.
3. (1990). "State Attorneys General: Powers and Responsibilities". BNA Books.
4. (January 23, 2015). "LePage sheds light on plan to strip Legislature of power to elect attorney general, treasurer". Bangor Publishing Company.
5. "Elections for Attorney General to Take Place in 30 States". [[National Association of Attorneys General]].
6. "2014 State and Territorial Attorneys General Election Results".
7. "AG Spotlight: New Attorneys General".
8. "Attorneys General with term limits". Ballotpedia.
9. (1990). "State Attorneys General: Powers and Responsibilities". BNA Books.
10. (1990). "State Attorneys General: Powers and Responsibilities". BNA Books.
11. (1990). "State Attorneys General: Powers and Responsibilities". BNA Books.
12. (May 15, 2016). "Is it legal for North Carolina's attorney general to not defend the state's bathroom law?". The Washington Post.
13. (1990). "State Attorneys General: Powers and Responsibilities". BNA Books.
14. The title of the head of Puerto Rico's Justice Department is the [[Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico. Secretary of Justice]], not Attorney General.