Providing An Order of Succession Within the 
                Department of Justice

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, including the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 
                1998, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et seq., it is hereby ordered that:

                Section 1. Subject to the provisions of section 2 of 
                this order, the following officers, in the order 
                listed, shall act as and perform the functions and 
                duties of the office of Attorney General, during any 
                period in which the Attorney General, the Deputy 
                Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, and 
                the officers designated by the Attorney General 
                pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 508 to act as Attorney General 
                have died, resigned, or otherwise become unable to 
                perform the functions and duties of the office of 
                Attorney General, until such time as at least one of 
                the officers mentioned above is able to perform the 
                functions and duties of that office:

                    (a) United States Attorney for the District of 
                Maryland;
                    (b) United States Attorney for the Southern 
                District of Alabama; and
                    (c) United States Attorney for the Northern 
                District of Georgia.

                Sec. 2. Exceptions. (a) No individual who is serving in 
                an office listed in section 1 of this order in an 
                acting capacity, by virtue of so serving, shall act as 
                Attorney General pursuant to this order.

                    (b) No individual listed in section 1 shall act as 
                Attorney General unless that individual is otherwise 
                eligible to so serve under the Federal Vacancies Reform 
                Act of 1998.
                    (c) Notwithstanding the provisions of this order, 
                the President retains discretion, to the extent 
                permitted by law, to depart from this order in 
                designating an acting Attorney General.

                Sec. 3. This order supersedes the President's 
                Memorandum for the Attorney General of December 8, 2006 
                (Designation of Officers of the Department of Justice).

                Sec. 4. This order is intended to improve the internal 
                management of the executive branch and is not intended 
                to, and does not, create any right or benefit, 
                substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in 
                equity, by any party against the United States, its 
                agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers, 
                employees, or agents, or any other person.

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                    President, George Bush

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, December 9, 2008.