Since the administration of America's first president, George Washington, the attorney general has been the country's highest-ranking law enforcement official. The Attorney General's Office looks at this important post by examining the citizens who have held it, including Robert Kennedy and Janet Reno.

The delegates who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to write the Constitution had two purposes in mind: They wanted to establish a strong central authority and to limit that central authority's capacity to abuse its power.

The series YOUR GOVERNMENT: HOW IT WORKS provides an in-depth examination of our government and its processes and makes clear how our informed partici-pation is crucial to government's serving both the individual and the American people as a whole.