The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit
This Reading Room is a comprehensive database of published opinions written by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). It contains the approximately 1,400 opinions published by the OLC in its online database and the opinions produced in Freedom of Information Act litigation brought by the Knight Institute, including opinions about the Pentagon Papers, the Civil Rights Era, and the War Powers Act. It also contains indexes of unclassified OLC opinions written between 1945 and February 15, 1994 (these indexes were created by the OLC and intended to be comprehensive). We have compiled those indexes into a single list here and in .csv format here. This Reading Room also contains an index of all classified OLC opinions issued between 1974 and 2021, except those classified or codeword-classified at a level higher than Top Secret (the OLC created this index, too, and intended it to be comprehensive).
Some opinion descriptions were drafted by the OLC, some were prepared by Knight First Amendment Institute staff, and some were generated using AI tools.
The Knight Institute will continue updating the reading room with new records. To get alerts when the OLC publishes a new opinion in its database, follow @OLCforthepeople on Twitter.
Showing 191–200 of 2214
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Exempting the Records of the SEC Fraud Surveillance Team from Reporting Obligations in the Privacy Act
The Securities and Exchange Commission is authorized by 5 U.S.C. § 522a(j)(2) of the Privacy Act to exempt the records of the proposed Fraud Surveillance Team from reporting obligations in 5 U.S.C. § 552a(e)(3) of the Act. 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/olc/file/2012-07-03-sec-fraud-team/download.
7/3/2012
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Assertion of Executive Privilege Over Deliberative Materials Generated in Response to Congressional Investigation Into Operation Fast and Furious
Executive privilege may properly be asserted in response to a congressional subpoena seeking internal Department of Justice documents generated in the course of the deliberative process concerning the Department's response to congressional and related media inquiries into Operation Fast and Furious. 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/olc/file/2012-06-19-fast-furious-docs/download.
6/19/2012
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Duty to Report Suspected Child Abuse Under 42 U.S.C. § 13031
Under 42 U.S.C. § 13031—a provision of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990—all covered professionals who learn of suspected child abuse while engaged in enumerated activities and professions on federal land or in federal facilities must report that abuse, regardless of where the suspected victim is cared for or resides. The fact that a patient has viewed child pornography may "give reason to suspect that a child has suffered an incident of child abuse" under the statute, and a covered professional is not relieved of an obligation to report the possible abuse simply because neither the covered professional nor the patient knows the identity of the child depicted in the pornography. 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/olc/file/2012-05-29-report-child-abuse/download.
5/29/2012
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Appointment of Uncompensated Special Attorneys Under 28 U.S.C. § 515
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/olc/file/2012-04-25-uncomp-spec-attys/download.
4/25/2012
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Whether Reservists Must Exhaust Available Leave Under 5 U.S.C. § 6323(b) Before Taking Leave Under 5 U.S.C. § 6323(a)
A reservist who performs military service that qualifies for leave under 5 U.S.C. §§ 6323(a) and 6323(b) may elect to take leave under section 6323(a) without first using all of his or her available leave under section 6323(b). 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/olc/file/2012-04-03-reservists-leave/download.
4/3/2012
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Online Terms of Service Agreements with Open-Ended Indemnification Clauses Under the Anti-Deficiency Act
Traditional principles of contract law govern the standard for consent to an online terms of service agreement, and, as a result, consent to such an agreement turns on whether the web user had reasonable notice of and manifested assent to the online agreement. A government employee with actual authority to contract on behalf of the United States violates the Anti-Deficiency Act by entering into an unrestricted, open-ended indemnification agreement on behalf of the government. A government employee who lacks authority to contract on behalf of the United States does not violate the Anti-Deficiency Act by consenting to an agreement, including an agreement containing an unrestricted, open-ended indemnification clause, because no binding obligation on the government was incurred. 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/olc/file/2012-03-27-online-tos-agmts/download.
3/27/2012
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Whether a Collective Bargaining Agreement May Require that the United States Postal Service Apply Seniority Rules to Vacant Positions Notwithstanding Requests by Disabled Employees for Reasonable Accommodations under the Rehabilitation Act
The opinion concludes that the USPS will not violate the Rehabitiliation Act of 1973 by following its collective bargaining agreement with the American Postal Workers Union, which requires all assignments to vacant positions to comport with the seniority rules outlined in the agreement, even when a less senior employee has requested the position as a reasonable accommodation for a disability under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 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 https://justice.gov/olc/page/file/936266/download.
3/19/2012
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Altering Puerto Rico's Relationship with the United States Through Referendum
Legislation conditioning a change in Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States on the results of one or more referenda by the Puerto Rican electorate, without subsequent congressional action, would be constitutional, insofar as the referendum or referenda presented voters in the territory with a limited set of options specified in advance by Congress. 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/olc/file/2012-03-07-puerto-rico-ref/download.
3/7/2012
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State and Local Deputation of Federal Law Enforcement Officers During Stafford Act Deployments
Where federal law enforcement officers have been deployed pursuant to the Stafford Act and are properly carrying out federal disaster relief in a local community, they may accept deputation under state or local laws that expressly authorize them to make arrests, where such arrests would bear a logical relationship to or advance the purposes of the Stafford Act deployment. 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/olc/file/2012-03-05-deput-fleo-stafford-act/download.
3/5/2012
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Use of FY 2009/2010 Funds by the General Services Administration to Assist the Department of Veterans Affairs in Acquiring Human Resources for FY 2012
The Department of Veterans Affairs properly obligated its Fiscal Year 2009/2010 funds when it and the General Services Administration signed an interagency agreement in August 2010, under which GSA agreed to assist the VA in obtaining a new contract for the provision of human resources. GSA may use those funds in Fiscal Year 2012 to perform its obligations under the interagency agreement without running afoul of the requirement, developed by the Government Accountability Office, that servicing agencies acting under interagency agreements perform within a "reasonable time." 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/olc/file/2012-03-02-gsa-use-funds/download.
3/2/2012