US Attorney General Eric Holder Announces Resignation

Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation Thursday after heading the Obama Administration's Justice Department for six years.

Holder, the first African American to hold the post of the Attorney General, has agreed to remain in office until a successor is nominated and confirmed.

Holder said that though he was resigning from the job at the Justice department, he will never leave the work.

"I will continue to serve and try to find ways to make our nation even more true to its founding ideals," he said, reports CNN.

In a poignant ceremony at the White House, Obama praised Holder for bringing down the crime and imprisonment rate by 10 per cent during his tenure. This was the first time since 1980 that the federal prison population has declined. Obama also credited Holder for handling hundreds of terror cases, bringing down corruption and tackling cases of financial fraud. He also called Holder "the people's lawyer".

"Eric has done a superb job," Obama said. "I just want to say thank you," he added.

Responding to Obama's speech, Holder said he took inspiration from the work Robert Kennedy did in the Justice department in advancing the civil rights movement.  Holder also thanked his family and President Obama during his speech, reports the Associated Press.

During his tenure, Holder strictly enforced the voting rights act, tackled drug sentencing rules that caused disparities among white and black convicts, gave legal benefits to same sex couples and declined to defend the law that permitted states to disregard gay marriages.

"If you asked me what my biggest regret was, I would say that it was the failure to pass any responsible and reasonable gun safety legislation after the shootings in Newtown," Holder had said in an interview, reports AP.

The challenges facing the next Attorney General are enormous. Some of them are managing the counter terror measures against the Islamic State militants, striking a balance between privacy rights and government surveillance programs and deciding whether to carry on with the efforts to prosecute NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden, reports Reuters.