Reading Room Document

Congressionally Mandated Notice Period for Withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty

In establishing a mandatory waiting period for withdrawing from a treaty, section 1234(a) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 unconstitutionally interferes with the President's exclusive authority to execute treaties and to conduct diplomacy. 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/1348136/download.

September 22, 2020