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 1211–1220 of 2202
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Appointment of Judge Wilkey to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal
10/27/2020
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Presidential Power Concerning Directors of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank
7/27/2020
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Constitutionality of Statute Imposing Death Penalty for Attempted Assassination of the President
Under applicable Supreme Court precedent, a statute making it a capital offense to attempt to assassinate the President would be unlikely to survive constitutional challenge, unless it were narrowly drawn to include only cases in which the defendant's intent was unambiguous and the attempt nearly successful. Both historical precedent and contemporary practice in this and other countries suggest that death would ordinarily be regarded by a court as an excessive punishment for the crime of attempted murder. On the other hand, the unique position of the President in our constitutional system, coupled with the threat to the national security which an assault on his person would constitute, may warrant subjecting the crime of attempted assassination of the President to the death penalty. 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/22631/download.
4/30/1981
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Attorney General's authority to administer oath to appointee to position of Ambassador
7/27/2020
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Attorney General participation in USO 40th birthday; funds from which will go to USO building fund
7/27/2020
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Amendment of the Farmers Home Administration Disaster Loan Program
Under applicable provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, amendments to regulations governing the disaster loan program administered by the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) can be made effective immediately, without giving the public a prior opportunity to comment, if the FmHA finds for "good cause" that notice and public procedure thereon would be "impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest." It is for the rulemaking agency to determine whether there is "good cause" for dispensing with notice and comment; however, if the facts are such that the authorized administrative purpose would be frustrated by delay, the argument for proceeding expeditiously is reasonable on its face. 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/22621/download.
4/24/1981
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Contacts Between the Office of Management and Budget and Executive Agencies Under Executive Order No. 12,291
Agencies are not precluded from receiving, in the context of informal rulemaking, views or information outside the usual channels for public comment, notwithstanding the ex parte contacts doctrine developed in the D.C. Circuit, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is under no duty to refrain from communicating with rulemaking agencies pursuant to its implementation of Executive Order No. 12,291. The Administrative Procedure Act's provisions for judicial review and public participation in informal rulemaking may be construed to imply an agency obligation to disclose communications from outside the agency, including communications which occur after the publication of proposed rulemaking. Therefore, in order to reduce the danger of reversal, such communication should be included in the administrative file and the record for judicial review, at least to the extent that they are factual as opposed to deliberative in nature. A rulemaking agency need not disclose substantive communications from OMB or other federal agencies which form part of its deliberative process; however, the deliberative process does not extend to the legal or policy views of persons outside of executive or independent agencies, even when they are transmitted by an agency acting as a conduit for the third party. 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/22626/download.
4/24/1981
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Congressional Testimony by Presidential Assitants
This memo reviews the legal implications of an assistant to the president testifying voluntarily before a senate committee, and attaches three relevant previous OLC opinions on the subject. The memo advises that even testimony subject to a waiver of immunity "has some potential to undermine the legal basis of the immunity." 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/1225991/download.
4/14/1981
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The Attorney General's Duty to Defend the Constitutionality of Statutes
The Department of Justice has a duty to defend the constitutionality of an Act of Congress whenever a reasonable argument can be made in its support, even if the Attorney General concludes that the argument may ultimately be unsuccessful in the courts. The statute at issue in the instant case could be held constitutional as applied in certain situations, and accordingly the Department will defend it. 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/22546/download.
4/6/1981
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Presidential Succession and Delegation in Case of Disability
The following memorandum discusses issues relating to presidential succession and delegation of presidential power in the event of a temporary disability of the President. It examines the mechanism established by the Twenty-Fifth Amendment by which the Vice President assumes the powers and duties of the Office of the President, and the conditions under which the President resumes his Office after his disability is ended. It also examines the circumstances in which the President may delegate his powers to other officials, including the Vice President, when it is not considered necessary or appropriate to invoke the provisions of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. It concludes that functions vested in the President by the Constitution are generally not delegable and must be performed by him; however, any power vested in the President by statute may be delegated to subordinate officers, unless the statute affirmatively prohibits such delegation. Finally, the memorandum briefly reviews the form and method of delegation. An appendix contains a historical summary of prior presidential disabilities and the resulting effect on presidential authority. 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/22616/download.
4/3/1981