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 221–230 of 2202
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Authority of OPM to Direct Health Insurer Not to Enroll Individual Deemed Eligible by Employing Agency
Under both the regulations it has issued for administering the Federal Employees Health Benefits Act and its contract with the insurance carrier, the Office of Personnel Management has authority to direct a carrier not to enroll an individual in a health plan if OPM disagrees with the employing agency's determination that the enrollment is permissible under federal law. In the circumstances presented here, the law does not allow OPM to exercise its general administrative discretion in a manner that would permit such an enrollment to proceed. 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/olc/file/2010-01-20-opm-direct-not-enroll/download.
1/20/2010
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Legal Effect of Federal Judge's Order as Hearing Officer Under Court's Employment Dispute Resolution Plan
The Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, who was acting in an administrative capacity under the Court's employment dispute resolution plan when he issued an order to the Office of Personnel Management, lacked the authority to direct OPM in its administration of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Accordingly, OPM is not legally required to comply with the directives in the order. 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/olc/file/2010-01-20-fed-judge-hrg-officer/download.
1/20/2010
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Use of "Unanticipated Needs" Funds to Pay the Security-Related Hotel Expenses of a Supreme Court Nominee
Payment of expenses related to Judge Sotomayor's hotel stays in Washington, D.C. during the period between her nomination to the Supreme Court and the conclusion of her confirmation hearings falls within the President's discretion under 3 U.S.C. § 108. 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/olc/file/2010-01-15-unanticipated-needs/download.
1/15/2010
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Engagement with the International Criminal Court
This opinion considers whether federal laws restrict the government's ability to support the ICC. The memo concludes that certain diplomatic activities are not prohibited by law, including providing informational support and detailing personnel to the ICC for particular cases involving foreign nationals accused of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity. This opinion was obtained by the New York Times. A copy of the opinion is available here: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/2009-olc-memo-on-support-for-the-icc/b1a4ef1b0c5dc790/full.pdf
4/11/2022
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Census Confidentiality and the PATRIOT Act
The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 does not require the Secretary of Commerce to disclose census information to federal law enforcement or national security officers where such disclosure would otherwise be prohibited by the Census 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/olc/file/2010-01-04-census-confidentiality/download.
1/4/2010
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State Procedures for Appointment of Competent Counsel in Post-Conviction Review of Capital Sentences
Statutory provisions originally enacted as section 107(a) of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, and now codified as chapter 154 of title 28, U.S. Code, may be construed to permit the Attorney General to exercise his delegated authority to define the term "competent" within reasonable bounds and independent of the counsel competency standards a state itself establishes, and to apply that definition in determining whether to certify that a state is eligible for special procedures in federal habeas corpus proceedings involving review of state capital convictions. If the Attorney General chooses to establish a federal minimum standard of counsel competency that state mechanisms must meet in order to qualify for certification, he should do so in a manner that still leaves the states some significant discretion in establishing and applying their own counsel competency standards. These statutory provisions may reasonably be construed to permit the Attorney General to evaluate a state's appointment mechanism—including the level of attorney compensation—to assess whether it is adequate for purposes of ensuring that the state mechanism will result in the appointment of competent counsel. 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/olc/file/2009-12-16-cap-counsel/download.
12/16/2009
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EPA Acceptance and Use of Donations Under the Clean Air Act
Section 104(b)(4) of the Clean Air Act does not permit the EPA to accept and use donations of money. Section 104(b)(4) of the Clean Air Act permits the EPA to accept items of personal property (other than money), such as an automobile, so long as the property in question would be received for use directly in the anti-pollution research authorized by section 104. 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/olc/file/2009-12-08-epa-donations/download.
12/8/2009
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President's Receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize
The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution does not bar the President from accepting the Nobel Peace Prize without congressional consent, because the Norwegian Nobel Committee is not a "King, Prince, or foreign State." The Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act does not bar the President from accepting the Nobel Peace Prize without congressional consent, because the Norwegian Nobel Committee is not a "unit of a foreign governmental authority," an "international or multinational organization whose membership is composed of any unit of foreign government," or an "agent or representative of any such unit or such organization." 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/olc/file/2009-12-07-potus-nobel/download.
12/7/2009
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Applicability of Ten-Year Minimum Sentence to Semiautomatic Assault Weapons
Semiautomatic assault weapons are no longer among the firearms to which the ten-year minimum sentence in 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(B)(i) applies. 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/olc/file/2009-11-24-semiauto/download.
11/24/2009
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Effect of Spending Prohibition on HUD's Satisfaction of Contractual Obligations to ACORN
Section 163 of division B ("Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2010") of Public Law 111-68 does not direct or authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development to breach a pre-existing binding contractual obligation to make payments to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations where doing so would give rise to contractual liability. 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/olc/file/2009-10-23-acorn/download.
10/23/2009