Reading Room Document
Political Balance Requirement for the Civil Rights Commission
In appointing a new member to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, in order to comply with the statutory requirement that "[n]ot more than 4 of the members shall at any one time be of the same political party," the President should look to the party affiliation of the other members at the time the new member is appointed. 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/18796/download.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit