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Office of the Attorney General
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J.B. Van Hollen, Attorney General
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History of the Office of Attorney General
When Wisconsin became a territory in
1836, the President of the United States appointed the Attorney General.
In 1839, a territorial act gave the Governor the power to appoint the
Attorney General with the consent of the Legislative Council (the upper
house of the Territorial Legislature) to a term of three years. Both the
constitution proposed in 1846 and the one adopted in 1848 provided for an
elected Attorney General with a two year term. A constitutional amendment
ratified in 1967 increased the term to four years, effective 1971.
Chapter 75, Laws of 1967, named the
agency headed by the attorney general the Department of Justice and
transferred to its control the State Crime Laboratory, the arson
investigation program of the Commissioner of Insurance and the criminal
investigation functions of the Beverage and Cigarette Tax Division of the
Department of Revenue. The 1975 Legislature returned alcohol and tobacco
tax enforcement to the Department of Revenue.
The 1969 Legislature added enforcement of
certain laws related to dangerous drugs, narcotics and organized crime to
the duties of the department. In 1979 (Chapter 189), the Legislature
transferred the crime victims services program from the Department of
Industry, Labor and Human Relations to the Department of Justice.
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