Providing An Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice
Signed December 9, 2008·George W. Bush·73 FR 75531
Source
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Plain-language summary
Establishes an order of succession for the office of Attorney General under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, to apply if the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, Associate Attorney General, and any officers the Attorney General has designated under 28 U.S.C. 508 are all unable to serve. The order specifies that the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, then the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, then the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia would act as Attorney General, in that sequence, until one of the higher-ranked officials becomes available. It excludes anyone already serving in one of these roles in an acting capacity, requires eligibility under the Vacancies Reform Act, and preserves the President's discretion to depart from this order. It supersedes a December 8, 2006 presidential memorandum on the same subject and states it creates no enforceable legal rights.
Not written or reviewed by a person. Read the full order below for anything you intend to rely on.
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Legal standing
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Claimed authority
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et seq., it is hereby ordered
Quoted from the order as written. Many orders cite nothing more specific than “the Constitution and the laws”; this reproduces what the order claims, not an assessment of whether it holds.
Disposition
Supersedes: Memorandum of December 8, 2006;; ; Revoked by: EO 13557, November 4, 2010
Compiled after the fact by the National Archives, so recent orders often have none yet. An empty disposition means no record, not no activity.
The order, in full
Executive Order 13481 of December 9, 2008
Providing An Order of Succession Within the
Department of Justice
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, including the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of
1998, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et seq., it is hereby ordered that:
Section 1. Subject to the provisions of section 2 of
this order, the following officers, in the order
listed, shall act as and perform the functions and
duties of the office of Attorney General, during any
period in which the Attorney General, the Deputy
Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, and
the officers designated by the Attorney General
pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 508 to act as Attorney General
have died, resigned, or otherwise become unable to
perform the functions and duties of the office of
Attorney General, until such time as at least one of
the officers mentioned above is able to perform the
functions and duties of that office:
(a) United States Attorney for the District of
Maryland;
(b) United States Attorney for the Southern
District of Alabama; and
(c) United States Attorney for the Northern
District of Georgia.
Sec. 2. Exceptions. (a) No individual who is serving in
an office listed in section 1 of this order in an
acting capacity, by virtue of so serving, shall act as
Attorney General pursuant to this order.
(b) No individual listed in section 1 shall act as
Attorney General unless that individual is otherwise
eligible to so serve under the Federal Vacancies Reform
Act of 1998.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of this order,
the President retains discretion, to the extent
permitted by law, to depart from this order in
designating an acting Attorney General.
Sec. 3. This order supersedes the President's
Memorandum for the Attorney General of December 8, 2006
(Designation of Officers of the Department of Justice).
Sec. 4. This order is intended to improve the internal
management of the executive branch and is not intended
to, and does not, create any right or benefit,
substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in
equity, by any party against the United States, its
agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers,
employees, or agents, or any other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, December 9, 2008.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed December 9, 2008. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.