The attorney general: The paradox of the state’s chief legal counsel

“ The fraud, if one exists, has been practiced on the government, and, as the party injured, it is the appropriate party to assert the remedy or seek relied.' In U.S. v. Throckmorton, 98 U.S. 70, the court said: 'In the class of cases to which this belongs, however, the practice of the English and the American courts has been to require the name of the attorney general as indorsing the suit before it will be entertained. ”

“ ATTORNEY GENERAL. The Attorney General shall represent the State in all suits and pleas in the Supreme Court of the State in which the State may be a party, and shall especially inquire into the charter rights of all private corporations, and from time to time, in the name of the State, take such action in the courts as may be proper and necessary to prevent any private corporation from exercising any power or demanding or collecting any species of taxes, tolls, freight or wharfage not authorized by law. ”

“ The treasurer and the auditor (and also the secretary of state when he handles State funds) give heavy bonds for the faithful performance of their duties.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL.--The attorney-general is a lawyer who acts as attorney for the State in law cases to which the State is a party. His duties pertain chiefly to the higher courts of the State. He is the legal adviser of the State officers, and, when requested by them, gives opinions upon points of law.
He prosecutes persons who are indebted to the State, and assists in bringing to justice those charged with crime. ”

“ In many cases with which he has been connected he has exhibited the possession of every faculty of which a lawyer may be proud—skill in presentation of his own evidence, extraordinary ability in cross examination, strong grasp of every feature of the case, power to secure favorable rulings from the judge, unusual familiarity with human nature and untiring industry. ”

“ The attorney general shall hold his office for two years and until his successor is duly qualified. He shall represent the State in all suits and pleas in the Supreme Court of the State in which the State may be a party, and shall especially inquire into the charter rights of all private corporations, and, from time to time, in the name of the State, take such action in the courts as may be proper and necessary to prevent any private corporation from exercising any power or demanding or collecting any species of taxes, tolls, freight or wharfage, not authorized by law. ”

“ When, at thirty, he sat as an appellate judge in the court of errors, he was already powerful in politics; when, at thirty-two, he was attorney-general, he was the leader of his party in the state senate; when, at forty-five, he had perhaps the most lucrative professional practice in New York, he was the leader of his party in the United States Senate. But it will be easier to follow his political career without interruption from his work as a lawyer, honorable and distinguished as it was, and much of his political ability as he owed to its fine discipline. ”

“ But I do not admit that the attorney-general has any corporate or juridical character, or that he can be introduced upon the record, in his official name, as an actor or respondent in a suit. His duties are strictly professional duties, and his powers those of an attorney at law. Whatever he may do for the United States, a special attorney might be retained to do; nor can the United States appear in his name, nor by his agency, in cases where they may not be a party. ”

“ Tutt carefully ignited the attenuated stogy which he had excavated from its stratified brethren.
“A lawyer has to be faithful to his retainer—even if sometimes he doesn’t get it,” he announced, exhaling a poisonous cloud of greenish-gray smoke. “It is the duty of the attorney to be loyal to the interests of the person who employs him and to carry out his wishes to the best of his ability, just as it is the duty of the client to compensate him for his services. ”

“ A criminal information is a proceeding in the King’s bench by the attorney-general without the intervention of a grand jury. The attorney-general, or, in his absence, the solicitor-general, has a right ex officio to file a criminal information in respect of any indictments, but not for treason, felonies or misprision of treason. ”

“ Whenever the head of a department or bureau gives the attorney general due notice that the interests of the United States require the service of counsel upon the examination of witnesses touching any claim, or upon the legal investigation of any claim, pending in such department or bureau, the attorney general shall provide for such service. ”

“ In questions of this kind the distinction between a general and a special agent is important. A general agent is employed to transact all his principal’s business of a particular kind, at a certain place—as a factor to buy and sell; a broker to negotiate contracts of a particular kind; an attorney to transact his legal business; a shipmaster to do all things relating to the employment of a ship. Such an agent’s power to do everything usual in the line of business in which he is employed is not limited by any private restriction or order unknown to the party with whom he is dealing. ”

“ Justice STORY said that an information in equity at the suit of the attorney general would lie in cases of purpresture and public nuisance; the jurisdiction of courts of equity being sustained because of 'their ability to give a more complete and perfect remedy than is attainable at law, in order to prevent irreparable mischief, and also to suppress oppressive and vexatious litigations.' Eq. ”

“ The benchers appear to take cognizance of any kind of misconduct, whether professional or not, which they may deem unworthy of the rank of barrister. The grade of barrister comprehends the attorney-general and solicitor-general (appointed by and holding office solely at the will of the government of the day) , who rank as the heads of the profession, king’s counsel and ordinary practitioners, sometimes technically known as “utter barristers.”
The peculiar business of barristers is the advocacy of causes in open court, but in England a great deal of other business falls into their hands. ”

“ If the Attorney General's conscience is satisfied to act on considerations that he does not desire to expose to the light of day or to impart to an alien whose liberty may be at stake, thereby involving the fate of an innocent family, Congress leaves him free to do so. ”

“ When the Attorney General scrutinizes 'confidential information,' at all events it is the Attorney General who does so. If he is unable to carry out the discretion vested solely in him to act on whatever he chooses to act upon, he must either devise a shifting process that meets the elementary decencies of procedure or advise Congress of his inability to carry out the extraordinary responsibility which it has reposed in him and not in his subordinates. ”

“ But Congress has not seen fit to invest his subordinates with such arbitrary authority over the lives of men.
One is not unmindful of the fact that the Attorney General is burdened with a vast range of duties, and that he, too, has only twenty-four hours in a day. To be sure, one of his predecessors in the administration of our immigration laws, President Taft's Secretary of Commerce and Labor, himself examined every deportation file in which an appeal was lodged. ”

“ POWER OF ATTORNEY, or Letter of Attorney, is an authority under hand and seal empowering the person named therein to do some act on behalf of the principal, which otherwise could only be done by the principal himself. It is either general or special. A general power of attorney authorizes the agent to act for his principal in all matters, or in matters of a particular nature only, or in respect of a particular business. A special act of attorney authorizes the agent to represent his principal only in some particular specified act. ”

“ With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. ”

“ The law is ever jealous in admitting as accessories of a general appointment to any particular agency the power to borrow money in the principal’s name, to give his name to bill transactions, and to pledge him to guaranties ”

“ No Judge of any Court of law or equity, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Clerk of any Court of Record, Sheriff or Collector, or any person holding a lucrative office under the United States or this State, or any foreign government, shall be eligible to the Legislature, nor shall at the same time hold or exercise any two offices, agencies or appointments of trust or profit under this State; provided, that officers of the militia to which there is attached no annual salary, the office of Notary Public, and the office of Justice of the Peace, shall not be deemed lucrative ”

“ An Attorney General shall be elected by the people, who shall reside at the Capital of the State during his continuance in office, whose duties shall be prescribed by law, who shall hold his office for four years, and who, in addition to perquisites, shall receive an annual salary of three thousand dollars, which shall not be increased or diminished during his term of office. Section 14. There shall be a District Attorney for each Judicial District in the State, elected by the qualified electors of the District, who shall reside in the District for which he shall be elected ”

“ The power of impeachment shall be vested in the House of Representatives. Section 2. Impeachment of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Attorney-General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Comptroller, and of the Judges of District Courts, shall be tried by the Senate. Section 3. Impeachments of Judges of the Supreme Court shall be tried by the Senate. When sitting as a court of impeachment, the Senators shall be upon oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators present. ”

“ An arbitrary or disagreeable course of action by a judge arises principally from the fact that he is subject to no authority which can receive complaints against him and act upon those complaints by way of private or public criticism and correction of the judge. The best protection against arbitrary and disagreeable actions by judges is a duly constituted body of [Pg 248] fellow judges who hold a position of superior power and authority and to whom complaints as to the conduct of judges may be brought and who may investigate those complaints and exercise a corrective influence. ”

“ Ivanka Trump is another example. Among other things, Ivanka Trump acknowledged to the Committee that: (1) she agreed with Attorney General Barr’s statements that there was no evidence of sufficient fraud to overturn the election; (2) the President and others are bound by the rulings of the courts and the rule of law; (3) President Trump pressured Vice President Pence on the morning of January 6th regarding his authorities at the joint session of Congress that day to count electoral votes; and (4) President Trump watched the violence on television as it was occurring. ”

“ The charge is that in performing the functions of diplomats, politicians, soldiers, sailors, or whatever they happened to be, they conspired to and did plan, prepare, initiate, and wage wars of aggression and in violation of Treaties.
The Charter (Article 6 (a) ) declares that wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances are crimes against peace. It is no defense for those who commit such crimes to plead that they practice a particular profession, whether it is arms or the law. ”

“ I have enjoined upon the officials who are charged with the conduct of the cases on the part of the Government, and upon the eminent counsel who before my accession to the Presidency were called to their assistance, the duty of prosecuting with the utmost vigor of the law all persons who may be found chargeable with frauds upon the postal service.
The Acting Attorney-General calls attention to the necessity of modifying the present system of the courts of the United States--a necessity due to the large increase of business, especially in the Supreme Court. ”

“ Speech of Attorney-General Van Cassel.
“Gentlemen of the jury, a man well known in letters goes in search of a militant newspaper, comes to an understanding with it, and publishes an article which shows either irresponsibility or shamelessness. He declares that a council of war has rendered a verdict in obedience to orders. ‘Let them prosecute me in the assize court, if they dare.’ Well, here we are. But where are your proofs, those precise and irrefutable proofs that the council of war has rendered a verdict in obedience to orders? ”

“ Anybody can whirl their minds round and round as the wind does the weathercocks. La! 317you shall judge for yourself. At the trial, when the prosecuting attorney-general was abusing you, he carried them along with himself until they believed you to be a perfect demon of iniquity. Then, when your counsel was defending you, he carried them along with himself, until they believed you to be a persecuted cherub. Then, when the judge summed up both sides, they were equally drawn by opposite opinions, and could not make up their minds whether you were an angel or a devil. ”