Best Us Ag

Robert F. Kennedy was a prominent American lawyer and politician. He notably served as U.S. Attorney General, focusing intensely on combating organized crime during his brother’s administration. His legal background and dedication to law enforcement make him relevant for historians studying the mid-...

Eric Holder is an American attorney who served as the 82nd United States Attorney General from 2009 to 2015 under President Barack Obama. He holds the distinction of being the first African American to hold this position in the country's history. Before his appointment as Attorney General, Holder wo...

Loretta Lynch is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States from 2015 to 2017 under President Barack Obama, becoming the first African American woman to hold the position. Before her appointment as Attorney General, Lynch served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern D...

Nicholas Katzenbach was an American lawyer and government official who served as the 65th United States Attorney General from 1965 to 1966 under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He played a crucial role in the enforcement of civil rights legislation, most notably confronting Governor George Wallace duri...

William Wirt was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the ninth U.S. Attorney General from 1817 to 1829 under Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. During his tenure, the longest in the office's history at the time, he expanded the Department of Justice's procedures and establishe...

Janet Reno was an American lawyer who served as the U.S. Attorney General from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. She was the first woman to hold that office and the longest-serving Attorney General in the twentieth century. During her tenure, she oversaw significant federal law enforcement...

Sally Yates is an American lawyer who served as a federal prosecutor, United States attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, deputy attorney general, and briefly acting attorney general. In January 2017 she directed the Department of Justice not to defend President Donald Trump's initial trave...

Griffin Bell was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit before becoming attorney general under President Jimmy Carter. He led the Department of Justice from 1977 to 1979, addressing judicial selection, government ethics, intell...

Homer Stille Cummings was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served as United States attorney general from 1933 to 1939 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He previously served as mayor of Stamford, Connecticut, and held prosecutorial and party leadership roles. As attorney general,...

Merrick Garland is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as the 86th United States Attorney General under President Joe Biden, assuming office in 2021. Previously, he had a distinguished tenure as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, serving as its ch...

Jeremiah Sullivan Black was an American lawyer who served as the U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of State under President James Buchanan in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Francis Biddle served as U.S. Attorney General under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941 to 1945 and was the chief American judge at the Nuremberg trials.

Tom C. Clark served as U.S. Attorney General under President Truman and then as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1949 to 1967.

Edwin Meese served as U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan from 1985 to 1988 and remains a prominent figure of conservative originalist legal philosophy.

William Barr served as U.S. Attorney General twice, under President George H.W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and under President Trump from 2019 to 2020.

Jeff Sessions, a U.S. Senator from Alabama for twenty years, served as U.S. Attorney General from 2017 to 2018 before resigning at President Trump's request.