Showing 601–610 of 2202

• 6/21/1996

  FBI Authority to Investigate Violations of Subtitle E of Title 26 or 18 U.S.C. §§ 921—930

  The Federal Bureau of Investigation has authority to participate in investigations of violations of Subtitle E of Title 26 and 18 U.S.C. §§ 921—930 but may not supplant the primacy of the Department of the Treasury over investigations of such violations, unless the FBI has reason to believe that the investigation concerns a crime of terrorism over which a statute or Presidential Decision Directive 39 has given the FBI primary responsibility. 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/20016/download.

  6/21/1996

• 6/4/1996

  Severability and Duration of Appropriations Rider Concerning Frozen Poultry Regulations

  A provision in the Department of Agriculture appropriations legislation for Fiscal Year 1996, providing that a regulation otherwise rendered inoperative could be put into effect if a revised version of the regulation submitted by the Secretary of Agriculture was received and approved by two committees of Congress, violates the constitutional separation of powers by purporting to provide for the legislative enactment of a regulation without bicameral passage and presentment, as required by Article I of the Constitution. This unconstitutional provision is severable from the remainder of the section and statute in which it is contained, so that the section's prohibition against the use of appropriated funds to implement the subject regulation, and its provision that the regulation may not take effect absent authorizing legislation, are both constitutionally enforceable. All provisions of the section, including its prohibition against the regulation taking effect absent future authorizing legislation, are limited in duration to the 1996 Fiscal Year. 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/20021/download.

  6/4/1996

• 5/31/1996

  Involvement of the Government Printing Office in Executive Branch Printing and Duplicating

  Section 207(a) of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1993, as amended, which requires all executive branch printing to be procured by or through the Government Printing Office, vests executive functions in an entity subject to congressional control and is therefore unconstitutional under the doctrine of separation of powers. Agency contracting officers who act consistently with this opinion, and in derogation of the contrary view of the Comptroller General, would face little or no risk of civil, criminal, or administrative 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/file/20026/download.

  5/31/1996

• 5/23/1996

  Assertion of Executive Privilege Regarding White House Counsel's Office Documents

  Executive privilege may properly be asserted with respect to certain White House Counsel's Office documents that have been subpoenaed by the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight of the House of Representatives in connection with the Committee's investigation of the White House Travel Office matter. 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/20031/download.

  5/23/1996

• 5/21/1996

  Relocation Deadline Provision Contained in the 1996 Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act

  Requirement in the Appropriations Act that the United States Information Agency relocate the Office of Cuba Broadcasting to south Florida by a date almost a month before the Act was signed into law constitutes a technical or typographical error, and USIA is entitled to obligate the funds appropriated in the provision, even though it is unable to turn back the clock and comply with the provision's literal deadline. 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/20036/download.

  5/21/1996

• 5/17/1996

  Use of Federal Employees for Olympic Security

  Where the teams and delegations visiting the United States for the Olympic Games in Atlanta have been designated "official guests" of the United States by the Secretary of State pursuant to §§ 112, 1116 and 1201 of the Criminal Code, those provisions authorize federal agencies to provide their employees to assist in security operations at the Atlanta Olympics upon request of the Attorney General. 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/20041/download.

  5/17/1996

• 5/15/1996

  Section 609 of the FY 1996 Omnibus Appropriations Act

  A provision of an appropriations law purporting to condition the use of funds to pay for the United States' diplomatic representation to Vietnam on the President's making a particular detailed certification "within 60 days" does not require the cutoff of the covered funds until such time as the President has made the certification, but instead permits use of the funds to maintain diplomatic representation in Vietnam for 60 days after enactment. Taken as a whole, the provision impermissibly impairs the exercise of the core Presidential power to recognize, and maintain diplomatic relations with, a foreign government. Hence, the provision is unconstitutional and without legal force or effect. 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/20046/download.

  5/15/1996

• 5/8/1996

  Placing of United States Armed Forces Under United Nations Operational or Tactical Control

  Proposed funding restriction generally prohibiting the President from placing United States Armed Forces under the operational or tactical control of the United Nations in U.N. peacekeeping operations would unconstitutionally constrain the President's exercise of his authority as Commander-in-Chief and unconstitutionally undermine the President's constitutional authority with respect to the conduct of diplomacy. Granting the President the authority to waive the prohibition if he provides a certification and report to Congress would not remove the funding restriction's constitutional defect, because Congress cannot burden or infringe the President's exercise of a core constitutional power by attaching conditions precedent to the exercise of that 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/20051/download.

  5/8/1996

• 5/8/1996

  Protective Assertion of Executive Privilege Regarding White House Counsel's Office Documents

  Executive privilege may properly be asserted with respect to the entire set of White House Counsel's Office documents currently being withheld from the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight of the House of Representatives, pending a final Presidential decision on the matter. This would be a protective assertion of executive privilege designed to ensure the President's ability to make a final decision, after consultation with the Attorney General, as to which specific documents are deserving of a conclusive claim of executive privilege. 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/20056/download.

  5/8/1996

• 5/6/1996

  The Constitutional Separation of Powers Between the President and Congress

  This memorandum provides an overview of the constitutional issues that periodically arise concerning the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. Although that relationship is shaped in part by the policy and political concerns of the President and Congress of the day, the political interaction between the President and Congress takes place within an enduring constitutional framework that confers powers and responsibilities on both elected branches. In this memorandum we discuss the general principles underlying separation of powers analysis, and we address certain specific questions that have arisen in the past. Any set of examples is necessarily illustrative rather than exhaustive, however, and the Office of Legal Counsel is always available to assist in reviewing legislation or other congressional action for potential separation of powers issues. 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/20061/download.

  5/6/1996