# United States Department of Justice *Federal executive department overseeing domestic law enforcement and the administration of justice* The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is the federal executive department charged with enforcing federal law within the country and administering justice. Its counterparts abroad are justice or interior ministries. The department is led by the attorney general, a Cabinet member who answers directly to the president. As of the Wikipedia revision retrieved on October 26, 2026, the attorney general was Todd Blanche.[^1] Congress established the department in 1870, under President Ulysses S. Grant. The attorney general's office it absorbed dates to 1789. The department's headquarters is the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. Most federal law enforcement agencies sit inside the department, including the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], the [[U.S. Marshals Service]], the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal [[Bureau of Prisons]]. It has eight litigating divisions: Criminal, Civil, Antitrust, Tax, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, National Security, and Justice Management. It also includes a United States attorney's office in each of the 94 federal judicial districts.[^1] In the [[Minnesota]] record, the department is the plaintiff in a federal suit against the State. On January 14, 2026, its Office of Public Affairs issued release No. 26-21, titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. The release frames the filed complaint in *U.S. v. Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273.[^2] ## History The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the office of attorney general. Until 1853, statute fixed the attorney general's pay below that of other Cabinet members. Early attorneys general made up the difference with private law practices, often representing paying litigants in court. Under President [[Abraham Lincoln]], Attorney General Edward Bates (in office 1861–1864) had a staff of six. He held no authority over U.S. attorneys around the country. The Department of the Interior then ran the federal court system, and the Department of the Treasury handled claims.[^1] Congress tried and failed in 1830 and 1846 to make the attorney general a full-time post. In 1867 the House Committee on the Judiciary, chaired by Congressman William Lawrence, examined a proposed "law department." The attorney general would head it, and it would include the various department solicitors and the United States attorneys. Lawrence introduced a bill to create the Department of Justice on February 19, 1868. The department was established in 1870.[^1] ## Headquarters The department's main building was finished in 1935 to a design by Milton Bennett Medary. Medary died in 1929, and his partners at the Philadelphia firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary completed the project. The building stands on a lot bounded by Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues and Ninth and Tenth Streets, Northwest. It contains more than 1,000,000 square feet of space. In 2001 it was renamed for former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and it is sometimes called "Main Justice."[^1] The original meaning of the Latin motto on the department's seal, *Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur*, has never been fully settled. It is also unknown when the seal or the motto was first adopted. The department's most authoritative reading takes the motto to refer to the attorney general "who prosecutes on behalf of justice (or the Lady Justice)". An English inscription in the anteroom outside the attorney general's office makes a similar statement: "THE UNITED STATES WINS ITS POINT WHENEVER JUSTICE IS DONE ITS CITIZENS IN THE COURTS".[^1] ## Organization ### Leadership offices The leadership offices are: - the Office of the Attorney General - the Office of the Deputy Attorney General - the Office of the Associate Attorney General - the Office of the United States Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General - the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States[^1] ### Divisions During World War II the department also had a War Division. It was created in 1942 and abolished in 1945.[^1] ### Law enforcement agencies - **Marshals.** The office of U.S. Marshal dates to the Judiciary Act of 1789. The U.S. Marshals Service became an agency in 1969 and gained full bureau status within the department in 1974.[^1] - **FBI.** The FBI began on July 26, 1908, as a small investigative force formed under Attorney General Charles Bonaparte. The following year, Attorney General George W. Wickersham named it the Bureau of Investigation. It took its current name in 1935.[^1] - **Prisons.** The federal prison system dates to the Three Prisons Act of 1891. Congress created the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1930 by Pub. L. No. 71–218, 46 Stat. 325, which President Hoover signed on May 14, 1930.[^1] - **Corrections.** The National Institute of Corrections, founded in 1974, sits within the Bureau of Prisons. It has a legislative mandate to assist state and local correctional institutions.[^1] ## In the Minnesota record ### When - January 14, 2026: the department's Office of Public Affairs issued release No. 26-21, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*.[^2] ### What - The release states that the case was certified "a matter of general public importance". According to the release, that certification entitles the United States to "expedited review by a three-judge district court and direct appeal to the United States Supreme Court."[^2] - The record here does not establish the case's status after the announcement.[^2] ### Who - The United States is the plaintiff, and the State of Minnesota is the defendant. - The filed complaint, *U.S. v. Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273, is the act that release No. 26-21 announces.[^2] ## See also - [[Affirmative action]] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *United States Department of Justice* (revision 1374715179, retrieved 2026-10-26) — the department's description, leadership, components, history, headquarters, seal and organization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice [^2]: *How Minnesota Got Here* (merged master, footnoted; validated), note [39] — records U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026): its verbatim title and its certification language, and identifies the filed complaint *U.S. v. Minnesota*, 0:26-cv-00273, as the act the release frames. No URL is given because the release URL is not in this pack's allowed sources.