Justice Department



Justice Department, based in the Grand Hall of Justice, is effectively the governing body of Mega-City One, a sprawling metropolis covering most of the eastern seaboard of the former United States of America in the 22nd century. The city still has an elected Mayor and City Council, but they have no real power, their existence merely serving to draw attention away from the fact that the city is effectively a dictatorship ruled by the Judges and their ruling Council of Five (led by the Chief Judge), who took control in a coup in 2070 and have retained it ever since. At the time of writing, the Chief Judge is Judge Hershey (The Chief Judge was at one point sometimes referred to as the "Grand Judge", though this term seems to have been quietly dropped). At one point, the Judges appear to have operated alongside a regular police force, but this body has not been heard of in decades and was presumably abolished as it was pretty much redundant. Former Chief Judges include the founder of the Judge System, Chief Judge Fargo, as well as Chief Judge Lewis, Chief Judge Silver, Chief Judge Dan Francisco, Judge Caligula, Chief Judge McGruder, Judge Hadrian Volt, Chief Judge Griffin and Judge Clarence Goodman. Most of these people are now dead; Chief Judge is not a position one retires from. The Council of Five, who make most of the actual decisions, were originally a guiding committee founded by Chief Judge Goodman in 2057, but are now to all intents and purposes the city's central government; until recently and for many years, the Chief Judge was a member of the Council, though this has now changed. However, the Chief Judge still generally attends and chairs the meetings.