Attorneys General: Enforcing the Law (In the Cabinet)

As the nation's chief law enforcement officer, each of these attorneys general dealt with controversial legal issues and political events. William Wirt helped define the role. Edward Bates (the Civil War), A. Mitchell Palmer (the Red Scare), and Francis Biddle (World War II) restricted civil liberties during times of war and unrest, while Herbert Brownell and Robert F. Kennedy advanced civil rights. Edwin Meese brought a conservative agenda to the Justice Department in the 1980s, and Janet Reno made headlines with the Waco and Elian Gonzales cases in the 1990s. An afterword discusses John Ashcroft and the balance of civil liberties with national security.Phyllis Raybin Emert is the author of 'Attorneys General: Enforcing the Law (In the Cabinet)', published 2005 under ISBN 9781881508663 and ISBN 1881508668.