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 1141–1150 of 2202
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Executive Privilege
10/27/2020
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The Legislative Veto and Congressional Review of Agency Rules
The following testimony discusses the constitutional objections to legislative vetoes, which are grounded in principles of presentation, bicameralism, and separation of powers. The testimony also describes and responds to several theories advanced in support of the constitutionality of legislative vetoes. Finally, it outlines the Reagan Administration's policy objections to legislative vetoes in the broader context of congressional review of agency actions, and suggests alternative ways in which Congress may provide meaningful legislative oversight of executive action consistent with applicable constitutional principles. 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/22776/download.
10/7/1981
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Return of Evidentiary Bribe Moneys
7/27/2020
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Applicability of National League of Cities v. Usery, 426 U.S. 833 (1976), to the generation and distribution of electric power by State and local governments.
7/27/2020
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Subpoena Issued to Secretary Watt by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce
10/27/2020
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The Merit Pay System and Conflicts of Interest Principles
In this memo, the OLC explored “whether statutes or regulations governing conflicts of interest would be violated if a department supervisor covered by the merit pay system prepared an initial review, subject to reviews by a superior official, of the performance of employees who also are covered by merit pay, and whose merit pay salary adjustment will come from the same merit pay 'pool' as the supervisor’s adjustments.” In answering this question, the OLC considered 18 U.S.C. § 208 and the applicable standards of conduct in Executive Order No. 11222. It advised structuring the merit pay system to avoid this scenario given the risk of litigation and the possibiltiy that an adverse ruling could disrupt the Justice Department’s pay scheme.
5/16/2022
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Bank Deposit of Government Funds
7/27/2020
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Proposed cooperative agreement for the administration of St. Paul's Church can be implemented in a manner consistent with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
7/27/2020
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Federal Bureau of Investigation Participation in Wire Interceptions in Cases Where It Lacks Investigative Responsibility
Under 18 U.S.C. § 2516(1), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may be judicially authorized to participate in Title III interceptions of wire or oral communications directed at narcotics-related offenses, even though the Drug Enforcement Administration and not the FBI has general investigative responsibility for such offenses. The plain language of §2516(1) authorizes the FBI to participate in court-approved interceptions directed at any of the offenses listed in that section, and the legislative history lends support to its " plain meaning" interpretation. 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/22771/download.
9/29/1981
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Position of the United States regarding the applicability of the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. § 201, et seq., to publicly owned mass transit systems.
7/27/2020