Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice
Signed January 3, 2025·Joseph R. Biden Jr.·90 FR 2581
Source
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Plain-language summary
Establishes an order of succession within the Department of Justice, under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, specifying who may act as Attorney General 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 order lists, in sequence, the United States Attorneys for the Southern District of New York, the District of Arizona, the Northern District of Illinois, and the District of Hawaii as eligible to act. It excludes officials serving in those posts only in an acting capacity, requires that any successor otherwise be legally eligible to serve, and preserves the President's discretion to depart from this order when designating an acting Attorney General. It revokes Executive Order 13787, which had previously set a DOJ succession order, and states it does not create enforceable rights against the government or affect other agencies' existing legal authority.
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, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et seq. (the “Act”), 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 13787, March 31, 2017 Revoked by: EO 14148, January 20, 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 14136 of January 3, 2025
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, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et seq. (the “Act”),
it is hereby ordered that:
Section 1. Order of Succession. Subject to the
provisions of section 2 of this order, and to the
limitations set forth in the Act, the following
officials of the Department of Justice, 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 Southern
District of New York;
(b) United States Attorney for the District of
Arizona;
(c) United States Attorney for the Northern
District of Illinois; and
(d) United States Attorney for the District of
Hawaii.
Sec. 2. Exceptions. (a) No individual who is serving in
an office listed in section 1(a)-(d) of this order in
an acting capacity shall, by virtue of so serving, act
as Attorney General pursuant to this order.
(b) No individual who is serving in an office
listed in section 1(a)-(d) of this order shall act as
Attorney General unless that individual is otherwise
eligible to so serve under the Act.
(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. Executive Order 13787 of March 31,
2017 (Providing an Order of Succession Within the
Department of Justice), is hereby revoked.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) 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,
January 3, 2025.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed January 3, 2025. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.