“That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.” — from Jackson's Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal

Attorney General Robert H. Jackson


On January 4, 1940, President Roosevelt nominated Solicitor General Jackson to be Attorney General of the United States. The office was about to become vacant because Roosevelt had simultaneously nominated Attorney General Frank Murphy to the Supreme Court. Jackson's nomination was confirmed by the Senate on January 16th. He was sworn in as the country’s 57th Attorney General and assumed leadership of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on January 18, 1940.


Attorney General Jackson
seated in his office.
Photo from Texas Bar Journal.

During Jackson’s tenure as Attorney General, he and DOJ were principally occupied with national defense matters. Jackson and other DOJ officials and components provided both formal and informal legal advice and assistance on national defense issues to other government departments. Jackson regularly advised President Roosevelt, in the Cabinet setting and in their many private conversations, on defense-related matters. Jackson also supervised DOJ’s Federal Bureau of Investigation under Director J. Edgar Hoover which, by presidential directive, coordinated all government investigations affecting national defense and supervised protection of national defense plants. Other DOJ components also reoriented themselves to national defense tasks. DOJ’s Criminal Division began to investigate alleged violations of various neutrality laws and also to deal with matters arising under various new laws, including the Selective Training and Service Act. DOJ’s Lands Division was involved in acquiring property for national defense purposes. Significant increases in defense contracting also led to growth in the government’s civil litigation.

According to Jackson, DOJ under his leadership performed its "task of making the national defense of the United States as nearly impregnable as possible" without "overlook[ing] the fact that this purpose must be achieved with due regard to the civil liberties of the individual as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and embraced in our American traditions." His "guiding principal" was that, "[i]n the process of upholding democratic ideals, we must not unwittingly destroy or impair what we are cherishing and endeavoring to preserve." (AG’s Annual Report, FY 1940 p. 2)

In addition to national defense matters, Attorney General Jackson guided and administered DOJ as it performed all of the regular legal functions, including criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions, that federal law had established and DOJ had grown to handle during the 1930s. Jackson particularly emphasized restraint in federal prosecution, reining in some of the excesses and publicity-seeking that had preceded his leadership. He also supervised the transfer of the Immigration and Naturalization Service from the Department of Labor to DOJ in June 1940.

Although Jackson’s rise to the Attorney Generalship did much for morale within DOJ, it was not his favorite government office. He found that the office required a large amount of administrative work that he did not enjoy, and he missed the legal issues and advocacy that had defined his work as Solicitor General.

Jackson served as Attorney General from January 18, 1940, until June 12, 1941, when he asked Solicitor General Francis Biddle to become Acting Attorney General because President Roosevelt had, on that day, nominated Jackson to the Supreme Court. Jackson formally resigned as Attorney General when he took the Supreme Court oath of office on July 11, 1941.

For general information about the United States Department of Justice, visit its web site at http://www.usdoj.gov. The work of the Department of Justice under Attorney General Jackson is detailed in the Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1940 (Washington: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1940) and the Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1941 (Washington: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1942). Jackson’s famous April 1, 1940, speech to the United States Attorneys about ethics in prosecuting, "The Federal Prosecutor," is published in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (1940) and the Journal of the American Judicature Society (1940).

by John Q. Barrett
last edited October 10, 2002