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 711–720 of 2202
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Whether the Attorney General may order the FBI to investigate allegations of non-criminal wrongdoing by Inspectors General
9/2/2022
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Constitutional concerns raised by American Indian Religious Freedom Act
9/2/2022
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Removal of the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
This opinion concludes that the statute providing a fixed term of office for the Director of the FBI does not preclude the president from removing the director before the expiration of that term. 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/1085346/download.
1/26/1993
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Authority of the Attorney General to Make Successive Designations of Interim United States Marshals
Under 28 U S.C. § 562, the Attorney General may make two or more successive designations of a person to serve as interim United States marshal in a judicial district where the marshal's office is vacant. After the expiration of an initial designation of a United States marshal under 28 U.S.C. § 562, the Attorney General may authorize a person to act as marshal under 28 U.S.C. §§ 509, 510. 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/20521/download.
1/19/1993
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Authority of the Secretary of the Treasury Regarding Postal Service Bond Offering
If the Secretary of the Treasury, within the fifteen-day period following notice by the United States Postal Service of a proposed bond issue, declares his election to purchase the bonds under 39 U.S.C. § 2006(a), the Postal Service may not sell the bonds on the open market, but must instead negotiate in good faith with the Secretary to reach agreement on the terms and conditions of a sale to the Secretary. Transfer of the proceeds of any bond offering by the Postal Service to a trustee for the purpose of having the trustee make payments on outstanding Postal Service debt would be a deposit of Postal Service monies within the meaning of 39 U.S C. § 2003(d) and, accordingly, could be done only with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury. 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/20511/download.
1/19/1993
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Authority to Grant Conservation Easements Under 40 U.S.C. § 319
Federal agencies do not have authority to grant conservation easements in federal property under 40 U.S C. § 319. 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/20516/download.
1/19/1993
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Authority to Use United States Military Forces in Somalia
The President, in his constitutional role as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive, might reasonably and lawfully determine that it was justified to use United States Armed Forces personnel to protect those engaged in relief work in Somalia. His authority extended to using U.S. military personnel to protect Somalians and other foreign nationals in Somalia. 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/20526/download.
12/4/1992
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Immigration and Naturalization Service Participation in Computer Matching Program with Department of Education
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has legal authority to participate in a computer matching program with the Department of Education in order to verify the immigration status of alien applicants for federal student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. 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/20531/download.
9/21/1992
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Legal Authority of the Department of the Treasury to Issue Regulations Indexing Capital Gains for Inflation
The Department of the Treasury does not have legal authority to index capital gains for inflation by means of regulation. 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/20536/download.
9/1/1992
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Whether a State May Elect Its United States Senators From Single-Member Districts Rather Than At-Large
Under the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, a State may not constitutionally elect its United States Senators from two single-member districts rather than at large. 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/20541/download.
8/20/1992