Kamala Harris

Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ/; born October 20, 1964) is an American attorney, politician and member of the Democratic Party who has been the 32nd and current Attorney General of California since 2011.

Harris graduated from Howard University and University of California, Hastings College of the Law, then worked as a Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, California from 1990 to 1998. She served as Managing Attorney of the Career Criminal Unit in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office from 1998 to 2000 and as Chief of the Community and Neighborhood Division in the office of San Francisco City Attorney from 2000 to 2003. In 2003, she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco, defeating incumbent Terence Hallinan. She was re-elected in 2007 and served from 2004 to 2011.

Harris was elected Attorney General in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris is the first female, the first African-American, and the first Asian-American attorney general in California. She is running for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Barbara Boxer in the 2016 election. In February 2016 The New York Times identified her as a potential nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia.

Attorney general

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions they may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement, prosecutions or even responsibility for legal affairs generally. In practice, the extent to which the attorney-general personally provides legal advice to the government varies between jurisdictions, and even between individual office-holders within the same jurisdiction, often depending on the level and nature of the office-holder's prior legal experience.

The term was originally used to refer to any person who holds a general power of attorney to represent a principal in all matters. In the common law tradition, anyone who represents the state, especially in criminal prosecutions, is such an attorney. Although a government may designate some official as the permanent attorney general, anyone who comes to represent the state in the same way may, in the past, be referred to as such, even if only for a particular case. Today, however, in most jurisdictions the term is largely reserved as a title of the permanently appointed attorney general of the state, sovereign or other member of the royal family. The term is pluralized attorneys general or attorneys-general.

United States Senate

The United States Senate is a legislative chamber in the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the House of Representatives makes up the U.S. Congress.

First convened in 1789, the composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each state is represented by two senators, regardless of population, who serve staggered six-year terms. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D.C. The House of Representatives convenes in the south wing of the same building.

The Senate has several exclusive powers not granted to the House, including consenting to treaties as a precondition to their ratification and consenting to or confirming appointments of Cabinet secretaries, federal judges, other federal executive officials, military officers, regulatory officials, ambassadors, and other federal uniformed officers, as well as trial of federal officials impeached by the House. The Senate is widely considered both a more deliberative and more prestigious body than the House of Representatives, due to its longer terms, smaller size, and statewide constituencies, which historically led to a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere. The Senate is sometimes called the "world's greatest deliberative body", sometimes pejoratively.

Harris

Harris may refer to:

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Other places with "Harris" in the name

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Kamala

Kamala is a common Hindu name, usually meaning Nelumbo nucifera, the lotus. Variants include Kamal and Kamla. It is unrelated to the similar sounding name of Arabic origin meaning perfection or integrity usually spelled Kamal in English but spelled Kemal in Turkish.

Plants originally named Kamala in Asian Indian languages

Places and geographic features named Kamala

Deities called Kamala as a praise-name