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 1231–1240 of 2202
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Whether adjustments made under the Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act (the "Act"), 8 U.S.C. § 1255 note, must be counted against the numerical limitations of visas issued under the Immigration and Nationality Act. 8 U.S.C. § 1151(a)
7/27/2020
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Use of Technical Advisers by Board of Contract Appeals
A governmental decisionmaking body, including an agency board of contract appeals, may employ technical advisers to analyze and make recommendations on the technical aspects of evidence. Where a decisionmaker properly uses technical advisers, their reports and recommendations need not be disclosed to the parties to the proceedings; however, where the advice of technical advisers adds new facts to the record or constitutes evidence in itself, a court may require that it be disclosed. 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/22591/download.
2/27/1981
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Proposed Revocation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of Certain Travel Restrictions on Permanent Resident Aliens (8 C.F.R. § 211.1(b))
10/27/2020
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Ownership of agricultural ranching interests by Department of Agriculture employees.
7/27/2020
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Questions about the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's attorneys in the field (Principal Legal Advisors) and at headquarters in the Legal Counsel Division.
7/27/2020
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Proposed Executive Order Entitled "Federal Regulation"
The following memorandum, prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel pursuant to its responsibility under Executive Order No. 11,030 for approving all executive orders and presidential proclamations for form and legality, analyzes the provisions of a proposed executive order imposing certain procedural and substantive requirements on executive agencies in connection with their rulemaking functions. It concludes that the order's provisions for presidential oversight of the administrative process are generally within the President's constitutional authority, and that they do not displace functions vested by law in particular agencies. It also concludes that the order's requirement that agencies reconsider final rules which have not yet become effective may in certain circumstances trigger the notice and comment provisions of the Administrative Procedure 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/file/22586/download.
2/13/1981
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Execution of Warrants and Subpoenas by United States Marshals
7/27/2020
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Travel Restrictions on Iranian Permanent Resident Alients
10/27/2020
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Memorandum to the Attorney General from the Director of the FBI dealing with certain types of FBI assistance to foreign law enforcement agencies.
7/27/2020
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Removal of Recess Appointee to Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
10/27/2020