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12 Ariz. L. Rev. 251 (1970)
The Old Order Changeth: The Department of Justice under John Mitchell

handle is hein.journals/arz12 and id is 259 raw text is: THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH: THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE UNDER JOHN MITCHELL* WILLIAM H. REHNQUIST** Dean Ares suggested that I relate my speech in some way to the Department of Justice-perhaps because he thought that since I had been employed by the Department for the past year, this was one subject about which I might know something. I suppose that his invitation was sufficiently broad to leave open the possibility of reading to you a tran- script of my timesheets for the past year, or to give a rather antiseptic dissertation on what a change it is to go from private practice in a small firm in Phoenix, Arizona, to the largest law firm in the United States- the United States Department of Justice. Modesty and charity have com- bined to rule out both of these approaches. I have instead decided to take the bull by the horns and discuss the role of the Justice Department under Attorney General John Mitchell, as contrasted with the role of the Department under former Attorney General Ramsey Clark. I believe that if one were to examine and to compare the actions taken by the Justice Department under these two administrations, one would find that 95 percent of the business of the Department is being handled today precisely the way it was two years ago. But it is not this 95 percent that makes news, or makes even reasonably interesting speeches, so I shall address myself to the very small percentage of things which are now being done differently. The basic charge made by the outs, as I understand it, is that the ins-the Republicans under Attorney General Mitchell-have politi- cized the Department of Justice. Whatever onu may think of this awk- ward combination of Greek and Latin in a word, its meaning is cer- tainly clear. The bill of particulars would run something like this: Count 1: Presidential appointees in the Department of Justice have been recruited on the basis of their being politically active lawyers; Count 2: The Department of Justice has shifted its position in some areas of civil rights enforcement, particularly school de- segregation; Count 3: The Department of Justice has been less sym- pathetic to claims of civil liberties, than it was under Ramsey Clark, in the following particulars: * Remarks before the Honors Convocation of the University of Arizona College of Law, Tucson, Ariz., April 22, 1970. ** Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, United States Depart- ment of Justice. B.A. Stanford, 1948; M.A. Harvard, 1949; LL.B. Stanford, 1952.