A Message From the Associate Attorney General

The Justice Department is the one agency in our federal government that bears the name of a value.  By virtue of that name — that value of justice — we know the Department carries a unique charge and responsibility.  The Department of Justice protects three bedrock foundations of our nation’s democracy: the rule of law, public safety, and equality and justice for all.  Through this Strategic Plan, we outline the Department’s objectives to achieve these core missions.

We protect national security, including by combating the rise in bias-motivated extremist violence.  We promote public safety and build trust between communities and law enforcement by funding community policing and other best practices by law enforcement and, where constitutional violations occur, holding departments and officers accountable.  We provide support to crime victims, including youth, seniors, and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and help ensure that they have the services they need and the respect they deserve. 

We vigorously safeguard fair elections and the right to vote, and we make sure that people can live free from exploitation, discrimination, and violence regardless of their race or ethnicity, their religion, their disability, their gender, or how they identify or who they love.  And we work to expand equal access to justice so that people are able to vindicate their rights and avail themselves of the protections and benefits our laws afford, regardless of race or economic status. 

The Department is also committed to providing meaningful opportunities for reentry and expanding access to medication-assisted-treatment within jails and at the point of reentry.  We can help save lives, improve public health, protect public safety, and ensure that people have the tools they need to successfully reintegrate into society.

We promote economic freedom and opportunity and protect consumers, workers, farmers, and others by ensuring fair competition and preventing abuse of market power.  We will hold corporations, and the individuals who run them, responsible for corporate misconduct, and will make sure that taxpayer dollars are safe from waste and fraud. 

Finally, we will preserve our planet’s resources for our younger generations by addressing multiple aspects of the climate crisis.  And we will seek to promote environmental justice to ensure that health and environmental harms do not unduly fall on already overburdened marginalized and underserved communities.  

This Strategic Plan sets out an ambitious agenda for the Department, which we will implement by working with, and being informed by, the diverse communities we serve.  This work upholds the Constitution and rule of law, and makes real our ideals of equality, justice, and fairness that define this nation. 

- Vanita Gupta
Associate Attorney General of the United States