Showing 2151–2160 of 2214

• 6/15/1954

  Application of the Hatch Act to Top Government Executives

  This memo concluded that Congress intended to generally exempt all “policy-making officials” from the prohibitions of Section 9(a) of the Hatch Act, which prohibited officers and employees in the executive branch from participating in political activity. With this understanding, the memo construed the four categories of exempted officials enumerated in the Act to include (1) “[t]he President and Vice President of the United States,” (2) policy-making officials connected with the White House, including but not limited to those compensated directly from appropriations for “The White House Office,” (3) any head or assistant head of a department who is a policy-making official, and (4) presidential appointees who have Senate confirmation and who determine policies in “the Nation-wide administration of Federal issues.”

  5/16/2022

• 3/15/1954

  Searches and Seizures Under the Fourth Amendment

  This memo summarized “important principles [of the Fourth Amendment] which have not been weakened by passage of time, the impact of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and several recent cases which indicate the trend that the law has taken.” At a high level, the memo described the law governing the issuance of valid search warrants, and explained the law at the time that even a warrant would not justify the search of a person’s private papers “merely for the purpose of using it against the accused in trial.” The memo also identified situations in which searches and seizures without warrants were permissible, including searches incidental to arrest and searches in emergency situations with probable cause. The memo ended with a list of seven miscellaneous “principles,” including that the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit wiretapping, and does not prohibit the use of illegally seized materials in a state prosecution.

  5/16/2022

• 12/17/1953

  Interpretation of Executive Order No. 10501 regarding classified information

  This brief memo advised that while Executive Order No. 10501 of November 5, 1953 applied only to “information which requires protection in the interests of national defense,” it recognized that certain non-defense information would also require protection, albeit not under the classification scheme set forth in the Order. The memo “strongly suggested” that, for such information, the Foreign Operations Administration use terms such as “For official use only,” “For staff use only,” or “For U.S. Government use only” to indicate any necessary restrictions.

  5/16/2022

• 11/27/1953

  Membership of Judge Parker on the International Law Commission

  This opinion concludes that the Constitution does not prohibit John J. Parker, Chief Judge of the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit, from serving concurrently as a member of the International Law Commission in the U.N. 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/935731/download.

  11/27/1953

• 7/28/1953

  Allocation of Travel Expenses of White House Personnel in Connection with Official Trips of the President

  This memo concluded that the travel expenses of White House officials and employees in connection with official trips of the president could be charged to the “Other Travel” item in the White House Office appropriation.

  5/16/2022

• 6/11/1953

  Enforcement of criminal law on Indian reservations

  This memo examined methods of improving enforcement of criminal law on Indian reservations in response to concerns raised by the governor of Montana. The memo suggested that the governor work with the Department of the Interior to take remedial actions including the possibility of establishing new tribal courts or initiating new legislation.

  5/16/2022

• 3/26/1953

  Authority of the Department of Justice to Represent Members of Congress in a Civil Suit

  The Attorney General has authority to represent members of the House of Representatives in a state court civil lawsuit if he determines that it would be in the interest of the United States to do so. The question whether the congressmen should be represented by the Department is wholly discretionary and should be determined as a matter of policy. 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/20731/download.

  3/26/1953

• 2/19/1953

  Applicability of conflict-of-interests statutes to uncompensated, nominally compensated, or per diem compensated individuals

  This memo examined the applicability of the conflict of interest statutes to individuals serving in a variety of different advisory roles. The memo found that while the statutes were generally applicable, their application was highly fact-specific and required analysis on a near-case-by-case basis.

  5/16/2022

• 1/28/1953

  Authority of Florida Police Officers to Make Arrests on the Basis of FBI Pick-Up Notices

  The authority of a Florida police officer to make a warrantless arrest for an alleged violation of federal law depends on state law and cannot be based merely on the existence of an FBI pick-up notice. 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/20726/download.

  1/28/1953

• 1/6/1953

  Investigative jurisdiction over wire tapping offenses

  This memo followed previous memoranda from November 10 and December 9th, 1952, which concluded that investigative jurisdiction for wiretapping offenses lay with the Department of Justice. The memo outlined the narrow circumstances of overlap where the Federal Communications Commission may share some investigative jurisdiction for wiretapping offenses.

  5/16/2022