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).

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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  • Limitations on the Detention Authority of the Immigration and Naturalization Service

    The Immigration and Nationality Act by its terms grants the Attorney General a full 90 days to effect an alien's removal after the alien is ordered removed under section 241(a) of the Act, and it imposes no duty on the Attorney General to act as quickly as possible, or with any particular degree of dispatch, within the 90-day period. This reading of the Act raises no constitutional infirmity. It is permissible for the Attorney General to take more than the 90-day removal period to remove an alien even when it would be within the Attorney General's power to effect the removal within 90 days. The Attorney General can take such action, however, only when the delay in removal is related to effectuating the immigration laws and the nation's immigration policies. Among other things, delays in removal that are attributable to investigating whether and to what extent an alien has terrorist connections satisfy this standard. An obligation to act with "reasonable dispatch" will attach at some point after the expiration of the 90-day removal period. 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/18926/download.

    2/20/2003

  • Response to the Preliminary Report of the ABA Task Force on Treatment of Enemy Combatants

    This report is written in response to the creation of the Task Force on Treatment of Enemy Combatants (“Task Force”) by the American Bar Association. The report provides the Department of Defense (DOD) with various legal arguments to counter the issues the Task Force was raising. The legal arguments include: the President has constitutional authority to detain enemy combatants, regardless of their citizenship, in time of war; enemy combatants have no right to counsel under either the Sixth Amendment or Geneva Conventions. The report suggest that the DOD, through these arguments, disqualify the Task Force's concerns as based on policy considerations, and not on legal objections. 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/docs/memo-aba-taskforce.pdf.

    2/7/2003

  • Appointment of Member of Holocaust Memorial Council

    The process of appointing an individual as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council was not completed. Even if the process of appointing a member of the Council had been completed, the President's appointment of another individual to that same position effected a removal of that appointee. 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/18921/download.

    2/6/2003

  • Department of Transportation Authority to Exempt Canadian Truck Drivers From Criminal Liability for Transporting Explosives

    The Department of Transportation possesses the authority to issue a regulation that, under section 845(a)(1) of title 18, would exempt Canadian truck drivers from criminal liability under section 842(i) of that title. The Department of Transportation, however, has not issued such a regulation, and therefore section 842(i) liability would attach to a Canadian truck driver transporting explosives in the United States. 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/18916/download.

    2/6/2003

  • Whether Canteen Service Provided Through the Veterans' Canteen Service Is Exempt From Review Under the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998

    Canteen service provided through the Veterans' Canteen Service is not exempt from review under the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998. 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/18911/download.

    1/31/2003

  • Presidential Authority to Protect National Security Information

    This opinion considers whether the president has the constitutional authority to withhold sensitive national security information from Congress involving the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by other nations. The opinion concludes that 22 U.S.C. § 3282, which creates reporting requirements for proliferation information, would not demand Congressional notification if the president determines that disclosure of the information could harm national security. 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/936261/download.

    1/27/2003

  • Authority of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to Impose Monetary Sanctions Against Federal Agencies for Failure to Comply With Orders Issued by EEOC Administrative Judges

    The doctrine of sovereign immunity precludes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from imposing monetary sanctions against federal agencies for violations of orders of EEOC administrative judges. 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/18906/download.

    1/6/2003

  • Funding for Technical Assistance for Agricultural Conservation Programs

    Funding for technical assistance for the agricultural conservation programs listed in amended section 1241(a) of the Food Security Act of 1985 is subject to the "section 11 cap" on transfer of Commodity Credit Corporation funds. The Secretary of Agriculture may draw on the Department of Agriculture's appropriation for Conservation Operations to fund technical assistance for these programs. 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/18901/download.

    1/3/2003

  • Legality of Fixed-Price Intergovernmental Agreements for Detention Services

    The Department of Justice has authority to enter Intergovernmental Agreements with state or local governments to provide for the detention of federal prisoners and detainees on a fixed-price basis and is not limited to providing compensation for costs under such agreements. 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/19001/download.

    12/31/2002

  • Duty to File Public Financial Disclosure Report

    A member of a commission in the Executive Branch need not file a public financial disclosure report in circumstances where the employee's salary is set by administrative action within a range specified by statute, is below the statutory salary threshold for such reports, but could have been set at a level making a public report necessary. The financial disclosure obligations of Legislative Branch officials should be construed similarly, because the statutory language applicable to officials in the Executive Branch is, in relevant part, identical to that applicable to officials in the Legislative Branch. 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/19006/download.

    12/19/2002

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