Reading Room Document
Publication of the worship services held on Sundays in the White House
The document is a memorandum discussing the legal issues surrounding the publication of worship services held on Sundays in the White House. It addresses questions about the authority of the President to make the records available for publication and the potential copyright issues related to the publication of the ministers' sermons. The conclusions reached in the document include the absence of statutory prohibitions against turning over the records to a private citizen and the potential application of the Freedom of Information Act to the President's official records. The questions presented for review include whether profits from the publication can be given to a non-profit organization and whether the records must be made available to any citizen who requests them.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit