The office of the state attorney general is even older than the states themselves.
The office of the attorney general originated in medieval England, where the King and other noblemen retained attorneys to handle several governmental tasks. Most American colonies established attorneys general and then retained the office during the transition from colonies to states. Several states mentioned the office in their constitutions.
Reflecting the populist spirit of the Jacksonian Era in the late 1820s, the office in most states was transformed from an appointed to elected position. The use of statewide elections increased AGs’ independence from other state-level political institutions and allowed them to be directly responsible to the people as opposed to the governor or the state legislature.
Most AGs exercised broad common law powers in the name of the “public interest” that were not specified constitutionally or statutorily. As one Maine court declared in the early twentieth century, the office of attorney general “is clothed and charged with all the common law powers and duties pertaining to [the] office.” This allowed AGs to “exercise all such power and authority as public interests may from
time to time require, and may institute, conduct, and maintain all such suits and proceedings as [the AG] deems necessary for the enforcement of the laws of the states, the preservation of order, and the protection of public rights.”
Today, the AGs of the fifty states, DC, and five territorial jurisdictions retain many of these older powers as well as new powers delegated by Congress and state legislatures. They serve as chief legal officers of their jurisdictions, a varied role that includes representing state government agencies, enforcing both state and federal statutes and regulations, and generally serving as representatives of the public interest.
In recent years, AGs have grown increasingly collaborative, working across state lines to address a variety of issues. This has resulted in numerous investigations of corporate entities, lawsuits targeting the federal government, and other actions expressing views on a variety of public policy topics.
