Reading Room Document
The Attorney General's Duty to Defend the Constitutionality of Statutes
The Department of Justice has a duty to defend the constitutionality of an Act of Congress whenever a reasonable argument can be made in its support, even if the Attorney General concludes that the argument may ultimately be unsuccessful in the courts. The statute at issue in the instant case could be held constitutional as applied in certain situations, and accordingly the Department will defend it. 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/22546/download.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit