Reading Room Document
Acting Attorneys General
From 1870 until 1953, the Solicitor General served as Acting Attorney General in the event that the office of Attorney General was vacant or the Attorney General was absent or disabled. This plan of succession was modified by Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1953 and by the codification in 1977 at 28 U.S.C. § 508 providing for the following statutory succession: Deputy Attorney General, Associate Attorney General, and in such order as the Attorney General shall designate, the Solicitor General and the Assistant Attorneys General. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/23601/download.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit