Reading Room Document

Congressional Authority to Adopt Legislation Establishing a National Lottery

Neither the Taxing Clause, Article I, § 8, cl. 1, nor the Necessary and Proper Clause, Article I, § 8, cl. 18, of the Constitution authorizes Congress to establish a national lottery. 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/23816/download.

April 4, 1986