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 1701–1710 of 2202
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Interpretation of Section 4(a)(5) of E.O. 11905
9/2/2022
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Martin Luther King Investigation
9/2/2022
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CIA Counterintelligence Activity
9/2/2022
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Coverage of the Smithsonian Institution by Certain Federal Statutes
This opinion concludes that the Smithsonian Insitution is not legally obliged to comply with the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or the Privacy Act, since it is not a traditional federal agency. 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/936051/download.
2/19/1976
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Constitutionality of Bill Creating an Office of Congressional Legal Counsel
Congressional officers representing the combined power of both houses of Congress—in contrast to officers of either house—who perform significant governmental duties must be appointed as provided in the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. The authority to bring a civil action requiring an officer or employee of the Executive Branch to act in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the United States is an exclusive executive function that must be exercised by an executive officer who must be appointed as provided for in the Appointments Clause and be subject to the President's unlimited removal power. 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/20871/download.
2/13/1976
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Ezra Pound Papers
9/2/2022
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Prosecution in the United States of assassinations abroad
9/2/2022
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Constitutionality of Bill Establishing American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress
A bill creating an American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress would violate the separation of powers by vesting the Librarian of Congress, a congressional officer, with executive functions. The bill would also violate the Appointments Clause by permitting certain members of the Board of Directors of the American Folklife Center to be appointed by members of Congress, the Board of Directors of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Librarian of Congress. 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/20866/download.
12/31/1975
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Arab boycott‐draft memorandum for the President
9/2/2022
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International Agreements by the Justice Department
This memo was written by Assistant Attorney General Antonin Scalia shortly after he testified before Congress on the subject of executive agreements. It asks the various sections of the Department of Justice to furnish him with information regarding the kinds of international arrangements the Department has made, as well as whether the Department of Justice has complied with the Case Act of 1972 by transmitting the text of any international agreement to Congress. 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/936046/download.
6/10/1975