The OLC
Astrid Da Silva

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.

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  • Possible statehood for Hawaii

    This memo examines the constitutionality of certain provisions in a Hawaiian statehood bill which relate to the establishment of a federal district court in the new state. Among other considerations, it asks whether the two incumbent federal judges of the territorial “legislative court” would retain their offices as federal judges of the new “Article III court,” or whether new appointments would be necessary. The memo concludes that new appointments by the president and Senate are likely required by the constitution.

    5/16/2022

  • Trial of American Citizens Before Courts Established by the American Military Government in Germany

    This memo explained the process afforded to American citizens tried before military courts, including the primary distinction that military courts do not provide a right to a jury trial. The memo also proposed two alternative procedures for American civilians accused of crimes abroad, including trial in German courts and American ones.

    9/2/2022

  • Presidential Electors and the Nominee of the National Convention

    This memo considered whether a presidential elector who announced an intention to vote for a candidate other than the one nominated by the elector’s party could be compelled to vote for the party’s nominee. It concludes that state statutes likely may not compel electors to vote for the nominee of his party but that state parties may cancel the elector’s nomination and nominate someone else, or could seek an injunction against him.

    5/16/2022

  • Government control of telephone and telegraph service

    Government control of telephone and telegraph service: This memo examines whether the Federal Communications Commission has the power or authority to control the uses to which telephone or telegraph services may be put. The memo shared the views of the General Counsel of FCC, who advised that the Commission has no authority to do so except during wartime.

    5/16/2022

  • The Power of the President to Send American Troops to Palestine

    This opinion concluded that executive intervention in Palestine, without Congressional approval, would “go considerably beyond existing precedents and would constitute a great extension of the Monroe Doctrine.” However, the opinion noted that the president could send troops to Palestine for the “limited purpose” of protecting the property of the United States or its citizens.

    9/2/2022

  • German Scientist Program of the Armed Services Departments

    This memo attached a letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service informing INS that the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency recommended the naturalization of Heinz Eugene Schmitt, one of the German Scientists in Operation Paperclip, and concluded his naturalization would not be contrary to the national security of the United States.

    9/2/2022

  • German Specialists and Scientists in the United States Under the Protective Custody of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency

    This opinion concurred with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s position that the FBI should be provided with the names of German scientists in the custody of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency as part of Operation Paperclip. The OLC agreed that the FBI should be informed of the identities of the scientists and their dependents so that the agency could check any information it had about those individuals in its security files.

    9/2/2022

  • Presidential Authority to Call a Special Session of Congress

    The President has the power, under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, to call a special session of the Congress during the current adjournment, in which the Congress now stands adjourned until January 2, 1948, unless in the meantime the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Speaker, and the majority leaders of both Houses jointly notify the members of both houses to reassemble. 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/20711/download.

    10/17/1947

  • Presidential Authority as Commander in Chief of the Air Force

    The President is Commander in Chief of all the armed forces of the United States—the Air Force as well as the Army and the Navy. 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/20626/download.

    8/26/1947

  • Authority to Establish System of Universal Military Training

    If Congress enacts legislation along the lines of either of two proposals for the establishment of a system of universal military training, supported by appropriate declarations of policy and findings of fact, such legislation would be well within the constitutional powers of the federal government. 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/20631/download.

    5/22/1947

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