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 111–120 of 2202
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Index of 1981 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed this index—of unclassifed OLC legal opinions from 1981—to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University during the litigation in Francis v. DOJ. The OLC labeled the index "preliminary."
3/3/2020
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Exclusion of Religiously Affiliated Schools from Charter-School Grant Program
A provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that excludes religiously affiliated charter schools from participating in the Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Program discriminates on the basis of religious status in violation of the Free Exercise Clause. 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/1347781/download.
2/18/2020
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Applicability of Section 410 of the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997 to the Gateway Development Commission
New Jersey's proposed diversion of a portion of its annual payment to Amtrak to a bridge project subject to the authority of the Gateway Development Commission, an interstate entity established by New York and New Jersey, would violate section 410 of the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997, which prohibits States from carrying out an interstate compact by using state or federal funds made available for Amtrak. 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/1277456/download.
2/13/2020
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House Committees' Authority to Investigate for Impeachment
The House of Representatives must expressly authorize a committee to conduct an impeachment investigation and to use compulsory process in that investigation before the committee may compel the production of documents or testimony in support of the House's power of impeachment. The House had not authorized an impeachment investigation in connection with impeachment-related subpoenas issued by House committees before October 31, 2019, and the subpoenas therefore had no compulsory effect. The House's adoption of Resolution 660 on October 31, 2019, did not alter the legal status of those subpoenas, because the resolution did not ratify or otherwise address their terms. 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/1236346/download.
1/19/2020
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Publication of a Report to the President on the Effect of Automobile and Automobile-Part Imports on the National Security
The President may direct the Secretary of Commerce not to publish a confidential report to the President under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, notwithstanding a recently enacted statute requiring publication within 30 days, because the report falls within the scope of executive privilege and its disclosure would risk impairing ongoing diplomatic efforts to address a national-security threat and would risk interfering with executive branch deliberations over what additional actions, if any, may be necessary to address the threat. 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/1350151/download.
1/17/2020
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Index of 1974 unclassified OLC legal opinions
The OLC disclosed this index—of unclassifed OLC legal opinions from 1974—to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University during the litigation in Francis v. DOJ. The OLC labeled the index "preliminary."
1/6/2020
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Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment
Congress has constitutional authority to impose a deadline for ratifying a proposed constitutional amendment. It exercised this authority when proposing the Equal Rights Amendment and, because three-fourths of the state legislatures did not ratify before the deadline that Congress imposed, the Equal Rights Amendment has failed of adoption and is no longer pending before the States. Accordingly, even if one or more state legislatures were to ratify the proposed amendment, it would not become part of the Constitution, and the Archivist could not certify its adoption under 1 U.S.C. § 106b. Congress may not revive a proposed amendment after a deadline for its ratification has expired. Should Congress wish to propose the amendment anew, it may do so through the same procedures required to propose an amendment in the first instance, consistent with Article V of the Constitution. 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/1235176/download.
1/6/2020
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Designating an Acting Director of National Intelligence
In designating an Acting Director of National Intelligence, the President could choose anyone who is eligible under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, even though 50 U.S.C. § 3026(a)(6) specifies that the Principal Deputy DNI "shall act for" the DNI during a vacancy. The President could designate the Senate-confirmed Director of the National Counterterrorism Center as the Acting DNI, but that person could not perform the duties of the NCTC Director during his time as the Acting DNI because no person may "simultaneously serve" as NCTC Director and "in any other capacity in the executive branch," 50 U.S.C. § 3056(b)(2). Because the incumbent NCTC Director was rendered unable to perform the duties of that office while serving as Acting DNI, the NCTC Director's first assistant would, in the absence of an alternative presidential designation, automatically serve as Acting NCTC Director under the Vacancies Reform Act. 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/1220586/download.
11/15/2019
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Exclusion of Agency Counsel from Congressional Depositions in the Impeachment Context
Congressional committees participating in an impeachment inquiry may not validly compel executive branch witnesses to testify about matters that potentially involve information protected by executive privilege without the assistance of agency counsel. Congressional subpoenas that purport to require executive branch witnesses to appear without agency counsel in these circumstances are legally invalid and are not subject to civil or criminal enforcement. 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/1214996/download.
11/1/2019
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Appointment and Removal of Federal Reserve Bank Members of the Federal Open Market Committee
The statutory procedures for appointing and removing Federal Reserve Bank members of the Federal Open Market Committee are consistent with the Constitution, and would have continued to be so under proposed H.R. 6741, the Federal Reserve Reform Act of 2018. 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/1349721/download.
10/23/2019