Making the AG more independent

[Blue3]

Maybe the Speaker of the House should appoint the Attorney General.

[HarrisonL]

No because then the AG would be in the pocket of the Speaker. The AG, this is an uncommon stance, should be elected by the people in Presidential years.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Maybe the Speaker of the House should appoint the Attorney General.

Would you have said the same thing back in 2015?

[Mister Mets]

I did a thread on the implications of electing Attorney Generals years ago, but didn't get responses.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=155032.0

It was based on this article.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2012/06/fixing-the-constitution-electing-the-attorney-general.html

The basic idea is to have a national election for Attorney General in the midterms.

I still think there are problems with a launching pad for the presidency that is limited to lawyers, and to forcing the Attorney General to be able to win a national primary.

[brucejoel99]

The principal duties of the AG are to:

• Represent the United States in legal matters.
• Supervise & direct the administration & operation of the offices, boards, divisions, & bureaus that comprise the Department of Justice.
• Furnish advice & opinions, formal & informal, on legal matters to the President & the Cabinet & to the heads of the executive departments & agencies of the government, as provided by law.
• Make recommendations to the President concerning appointments to federal judicial positions & to positions within the Department of Justice, including U.S. Attorneys & U.S. Marshals.
• Represent or supervise the representation of the federal government in the Supreme Court of the United States & all other courts, foreign & domestic, in which the United States is a party or has an interest as may be deemed appropriate.

The job is to be the executive at the DOJ, & to serve as the lead attorney for the executive branch. As such (& as much as it sucks that this creates the potential for the AG to be the president's hack, as is currently the case with Trump & Barr), the AG needs to be appointed by & accountable to the President.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Making the AG an independent official would be possible only if we were to remove her/him from running the DoJ, which is after all an executive cabinet department. Many countries have separate Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General and it's not a bad system.