The U.S. Attorney General is forever caught between competing demands: on one side, his political duties as cabinet appointee and adviser to the president; on the other, his quasi-judicial responsibilities as chief law officer of the nation. In theory the two sets of responsibilities coexist peacefully. In reality they often clash.

In Conflicting Loyalties, political scientist Nancy Baker provides the first comprehensive analysis of the history and structure of the office of the U.S. Attorney General, an office that legal scholars have described as "schizophrenic." Her study...

Reviled as a fascist and zealot by libertarians and liberals but praised as a great patriot and devout man of God by many conservatives, John Ashcroft may have been the most powerful and polarizing attorney general in our nation's history. Looking past such oversimplified stereotypes, Nancy Baker offers the first in-depth study of Ashcroft's controversial tenure as attorney general-and as domestic commander in our campaign against global terrorism.

Addressing new concerns about challenges to civil liberties in the wake of 9/11, Baker provides a critical assessment of Ashcroft's impact on...