POLS 125 Chapter Notes - Chapter NA: Dangerous Power
6 Nov 2020
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Remarks by attorney general william barr at hillsdale college (2020) Most basic check on prosecutorial power is politics: counter intuitive to say that since we rightly try to maintain an apolitical system of criminal justice, but political accountability is what ultimately ensures a sound judicial system. Government power completely divorced from politics is tyranny: presidential appointment and senate confirmation of us attorneys and senior department of justice officials legitimizes their exercises of sovereign power. They do not have political legitimacy to be the public face of tough decisions and they lack the political clout to publicly defend themselves. Almost all investigative and prosecutorial decisions involve the balancing of innumerable legal and practical considerations: those considerations need to be balanced in each and every case. These are all things that supervisors provide (1) that supervisor need not be a prosecutor, but could be someone who can balance the importance of vigorous prosecution with other competing values.
