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.
Showing 61–70 of 73
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Index of 1957 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed this index—of unclassifed OLC legal opinions from 1957—to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University during the litigation in Francis v. DOJ.
4/15/2021
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Index of 1958 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed this index—of unclassifed OLC legal opinions from 1958—to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University during the litigation in Francis v. DOJ.
4/15/2021
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Annotated index of 1981 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed a preliminary index of all unclassified OLC legal opinions issued in 1981 to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This version of the index (annotated by Institute staff) shows which opinions were released in response to the Knight Institute's FOIA request (green), which opinions are currently being processed (yellow), which opinions were already publicly available (blue), and which opinions were not selected by the Knight Institute for processing (white).
4/12/2021
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Annotated index of 1969 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed a preliminary index of all unclassified OLC legal opinions issued in 1969 to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This version of the index (annotated by Institute staff) shows which opinions were released in response to the Knight Institute's FOIA request (green), which opinions are currently being processed (yellow), which opinions were already publicly available (blue), and which opinions were not selected by the Knight Institute for processing (white).
4/12/2021
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Annotated index of 1965 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed a preliminary index of all unclassified OLC legal opinions issued in 1965 to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This version of the index (annotated by Institute staff) shows which opinions were released in response to the Knight Institute's FOIA request (green), which opinions are currently being processed (yellow), which opinions were already publicly available (blue), and which opinions were not selected by the Knight Institute for processing (white).
4/12/2021
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Annotated index of 1974 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed a preliminary index of all unclassified OLC legal opinions issued in 1974 to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This version of the index (annotated by Institute staff) shows which opinions were released in response to the Knight Institute's FOIA request (green), which opinions are currently being processed (yellow), which opinions were already publicly available (blue), and which opinions were not selected by the Knight Institute for processing (white).
8/7/2020
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Index of 1945 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed this index—of unclassifed OLC legal opinions from 1945—to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University during the litigation in Francis v. DOJ. The OLC labeled the index "preliminary."
8/4/2020
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Index of 1954 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed this index—of unclassifed OLC legal opinions from 1954—to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University during the litigation in Francis v. DOJ. The OLC labeled the index "preliminary."
7/8/2020
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Index of 1977 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed this index—of unclassifed OLC legal opinions from 1977—to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University during the litigation in Francis v. DOJ. The OLC labeled the index "preliminary."
6/5/2020
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Index of 1965 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed this index—of unclassifed OLC legal opinions from 1965—to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University during the litigation in Francis v. DOJ. The OLC labeled the index "preliminary."
5/7/2020