Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice
Signed March 31, 2017·Donald Trump·82 FR 16723
Source
Everything on this page is drawn from the Federal Register, the official daily journal of the United States government. Where this page and the source disagree, the source governs.
Plain-language summary
Establishes an order of succession for the office of Attorney General, specifying that if the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, Associate Attorney General, and any officers designated under 28 U.S.C. 508 are unable to serve, the role passes in order to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, then the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, then the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, it excludes anyone already serving in one of those offices in an acting capacity from acting as Attorney General under this order, and requires that anyone stepping in be otherwise eligible under that Act. It also preserves the President's discretion to depart from this order when designating an acting Attorney General, revokes the earlier Executive Order 13775, and states that it creates no enforceable legal rights for outside parties.
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
Revokes: EO 13775, February 9, 2017 Revoked by: EO 14136 January 3, 2025
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 13787 of March 31, 2017
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. Order of Succession. 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 any 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 Eastern District
of Virginia;
(b) United States Attorney for the Eastern District
of North Carolina; and
(c) United States Attorney for the Northern
District of Texas.
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. Revocation of Executive Order. Executive Order
13775 of February 9, 2017, is revoked.
Sec. 4. General Provision. This order 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
departments, agencies, or entities, its officers,
employees, or agents, or any other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 31, 2017.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed March 31, 2017. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.