Providing An Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice

Executive Order 13481 of December 9, 2008

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. 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
the 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 District of
Maryland;
(b) United States Attorney for the Southern
District of Alabama; and
(c) United States Attorney for the Northern
District of Georgia.

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. This order supersedes the President's
Memorandum for the Attorney General of December 8, 2006
(Designation of Officers of the Department of Justice).

Sec. 4. This order is intended to improve the internal
management of the executive branch and 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
agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers,
employees, or agents, or any other person.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, December 9, 2008.