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 1611–1620 of 2202
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Whether the Term "Federal Financial Assistance" in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Includes Federal Programs of Guarantee or Insurance
Rehabilitation Act of 1973—Nondiscrimination Provision 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/21181/download.
9/23/1977
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Law Enforcement by Marine Corps at San Onofre Nuclear Generation Plant
Law Enforcement at San Onofre Nuclear Generation Plant 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/21176/download.
9/22/1977
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Issuance of Commemorative Proclamations
Commemorative Proclamations—Issuance of 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/21361/download.
9/20/1977
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Transfer of Authority to Resolve Disputes Regarding Naval Petroleum Reserve
Transfer of Authority of the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of Energy—Naval Petroleum Reserve 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/21171/download.
9/19/1977
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Proposed District of Columbia Uniform Controlled Substances Act
Proposed District of Columbia Uniform Controlled Substances Act 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/21166/download.
9/12/1977
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Payment of Salary of Appointee to Dual Positions of Director of Peace Corps and Deputy Director of ACTION
Dual Office—Compensation (5 U.S.C. § 5533)—Peace Corps—ACTION 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/21351/download.
9/9/1977
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Presidential Authority to Act in the Case of Eddie Slovik
Presidential Authority—Slovik Case—Constitutional Law—Posthumous Pardons—Review of Sentence (10 U.S.C. § 1552) 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/21356/download.
9/9/1977
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Viability of Criminal Prosecutions Regarding the MKULTRA Program
9/2/2022
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Transfer of Appropriated Funds From the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the National Commission on Neighborhoods
National Commission on Neighborhoods (Pub. L. 95-24)—Powers—Appropriations 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/21346/download.
9/8/1977
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Effect of Court of Appeals Decision on CIA Activities
Weissman v. Central Intelligence Agency—District of Columbia Circuit—Effect of Decision 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/21161/download.
9/1/1977