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 1271–1280 of 2202
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Diverting Oil Imports to United States Allies
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act would authorize the President, in order to deal with an Iranian cutoff of oil to United States allies, to require American oil companies and foreign entities they control to ship oil they acquire abroad to certain specified nations and in certain specified quantities. While there must be a "foreign interest" in the oil for the President to invoke IEEPA's powers, foreign interest unassociated with the nation that is creating the emergency would be sufficient. Section 232(b) of the Trade Expansion Act would allow the President to impose a quota on oil imports for national security reasons, including reasons relating to foreign policy considerations; however, it would not give him power to direct the diversion of oil imports to other countries. 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/22416/download.
1/12/1981
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United States Attorney's Representation of Private Insurance Company in Civil Litigation
It is not improper for the Department of Justice to admit the liability of the United States on an indemnity claim in civil litigation, even if the Department previously refused to enter into a "hold harmless" agreement with the party seeking indemnity. Representation arrangement, whereby the United States Attorney will appear as counsel both for a private insurance group and for the United States in the same civil litigation, creates no ethical difficulty, given the coincidence of both parties' interests and their consent. 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/22556/download.
1/9/1981
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Voting Procedures for the Upper Mississippi River Basin Commission
7/27/2020
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Views on two issues relating to the President's power to make appointments to the District of Columbia Superior Court under Public Law 93-198 § 434(d)(1).
10/27/2020
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"Bifurcated" Settlement Negotiations in Cases Involving Statutorily Authorized Attorneys' Fees
7/27/2020
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Applicability of the Compact Clause to Use of Multiple State Entities Under the Water Resources Planning Act
Agreements between the federal government and a state are not subject to congressional consent under the Compact Clause, U.S. Const. Art. I, § 10, cl. 3; nor are all agreements between or among states so subject, but only those which encroach upon or interfere with the authority of the federal government. States may engage cooperatively in a broad range of planning activities under the Water Resources Planning Act without obtaining congressional consent, so long as they impose no legal obligation or disability on governmental or private parties. Congress has given advance consent to planning activities of the statutory river basin commissions, but not to those of interagency committees or multiple state entities. 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/24656/download.
12/30/1980
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Emergency Assistance to the District of Columbia Department of Corrections in Case of a Work Stoppage
Under 31 U.S.C. § 685a(a), which authorizes federal agencies to provide services on a contractual basis to the District of Columbia government, the Attorney General may provide Bureau of Prisons personnel to the District of Columbia Department of Corrections in the event of a work stoppage by Department employees. 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/24651/download.
12/22/1980
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Adjusting the Census for Recent Immigrants: The Chiles Amendment
The Chiles Amendment authorizes the President to order a special census pursuant to 13 U.S.C. § 196, or to use some other method of obtaining a revised estimate of the population, whenever he determines that the population of a particular area is significantly affected by an influx of immigrants within six months of a regular decennial census date. The Chiles Amendment was intended simply to remove an unfairly arbitrary element from the census, and not to serve as an indirect means of aiding jurisdictions affected by large numbers of recent immigrants. Accordingly, the entire population of significantly affected jurisdictions must be estimated, in order to take into account both the recent influx of immigrants and any offsetting recent population decline. 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/24641/download.
12/11/1980
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Litigating Authority of the Office of Federal Inspector, Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System
The statutory assignment to the Attorney General of plenary responsibility for the conduct of litigation involving the United States furthers a number of important policy goals, and exceptions to this plenary grant will be narrowly construed. The Office of Federal Inspector (OFI) of the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System has no general power to conduct litigation, although it is possible that OFI may have a degree of specific authority derived from the independent litigating authority of agencies whose enforcement powers were transferred to OFI by Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1979. The Attorney General may not delegate or transfer his authority and responsibility to supervise and control litigation, by way of a memorandum of understanding or otherwise, to an agency, like OFI, that does not independently possess litigating authority; however, attorneys from OFI may participate in litigation as part of a team headed by attorneys from the Department of Justice. 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/24646/download.
12/11/1980
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Effect Within the United States of Iranian Decrees Confiscating the Shah's Assets
Courts of the United States may give effect to Iranian decrees confiscating the property of the late Shah and his family, and will do so if the Executive stipulates, as an integral part of an international agreement with Iran, that such decrees will be given extraterritorial effect within 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/22411/download.
11/17/1980