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# We don’t need any more enforcer thugs
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/we-dont-need-any-more-enforcer-thugs/
- Published: 2007-05-02T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T23:57:42.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Joel D. Joseph Guest Commentary*

AS WE ELECT ATTORNEYS GENERAL IN nearly every state, we should elect the United States Attorney General. The office of attorney general has been a political, not legal, position for far too long. The recent political firings of U.S. attorneys, while a bit unusual, is par for the course in the history of the office of the attorney general.

I have done battle with the Department of Justice for over 30 years in civil cases, from John Mitchell to Ed Meese to Alberto Gonzales. And I can report that the Justice Department does a horrendous job, representing government agencies no matter how illegal or outrageous the conduct that was committed in the name of the United States.

I was an attorney on the Hungarian Gold train case for six years. In this case, the Justice Department (or as I have always called it, “the Injustice Department”) defended (at first under Clinton’s attorney general, then under George W. Bush’s attorneys general) the U.S. Army’s failure to return property seized during World War II that belonged to Hungarian Jews. Although the property was originally stolen by the Nazis, the United States Army wrongfully and illegally refused to return the property to its rightful owners. Finally, after pressure from Congress and the New York Times, the government settled the case and issued a rare formal apology.

An elected attorney general would be independent of the White House — he or she could not be fired by the president. The elected attorney general would be responsible to the people who elected him or her.

Of the 50 state attorneys general, 43 are elected. In five states the attorney general is appointed by the governor (Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Wyoming). In Maine, the attorney general is selected by secret ballot of the legislature, and in Tennessee, the state Supreme Court appoints the attorney general.

Alberto Gonzales is not the only presidential crony to serve as attorney general. John N. Mitchell, the only United States attorney general to serve a prison sentence, was a friend, confidant and law partner of Richard M. Nixon. Mitchell, however, was indicted, stood trial and was convicted along with three other defendants in the Watergate cover-up trial. For his part in the cover-up conspiracy and his failure to tell the truth about it under oath, Mitchell was sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years. U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica later reduced Mitchell’s sentence to one to four years. Mitchell actually served 19 months at the minimum-security institution at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

Alberto Gonzales has caused more harm to the republic than John Mitchell. Mitchell’s crimes were petty crimes in comparison to Gonzales’. Gonzales approved the United States using torture in violation of the

But like Mitchell, Gonzales was the president’s confidant and personal friend. We do not need attorneys general like Mitchell and Gonzales. Neither do we need attorneys general like Bobby Kennedy or Ed Meese, both of whom were too close to their president.

Ed Meese’s personal involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair as a counselor and “friend” to President Reagan, not as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, attracted the most criticism. Meese also was criticized when he appointed the Meese Commission to investigate pornography in the United States. Meese Commission officials contacted convenience store chains and succeeded in demanding that widespread men’s magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse be removed from shelves, a ban which spread nationally until being quashed with a First Amendment admonishment against prior restraint by the D.C. Federal Court in Meese v. Playboy (639 F.Supp. 581, 1986).

Let the people decide who should enforce our laws. An independent attorney general would tell federal agencies who are sued that the agency must compensate individuals or entities that they harmed, when the agency violated the law. An independent elected attorney general would no longer be the president’s crony or brother.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 2, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/050207.pdf?ref=smdp.com)