The U.S. Department of Justice enforces the country’s laws, employing more than 10,000 attorneys. It oversees federal law enforcement and handles criminal and civil lawsuits involving the United States. The Justice Department has played a key role at various moments in U.S. history, including combating the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction and protecting the civil rights of African Americans—such as by upholding James Meredith’s right to attend the University of Mississippi in 1961. But the nature of its role in serving the president while protecting the country’s laws has, at times, created controversies, such as its handling of Japanese American internment during World War II, the investigation of Pres. Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and the collection of communications data in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
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