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 1241–1250 of 2202
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Notification to Congress of the Department's Decision Not to Maintain the Constitutionality of an Act of Congress.
7/27/2020
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Policy of the Carter Administration Regarding Protection of the President's Name, Picture, and Seal
10/27/2020
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Whether the Agreement with Iran Can Be Treated as Void in Part
Even assuming the agreement with Iran could be regarded as void in its entirety because of the threat or use of coercion in its procurement, under international law the United States may not choose to honor some of its provisions and not others. 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/22431/download.
2/5/1981
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Review of Domestic and International Legal Implications of Implementation of the Agreement with Iran
10/27/2020
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Presidential Memorandum Delaying Proposed and Pending Regulations
The President has authority, under Article II, § 3 of the Constitution, to direct executive agencies to postpone proposed and pending regulations for a 60-day period. Even where a regulation has been published in final form, the Administrative Procedure Act does not require an agency to follow notice and comment procedures in connection with a temporary postponement of its effective date, since such a postponement will not generally be regarded as a rulemaking. Even if it were so regarded, an agency will in general have good cause for dispensing with notice and comment procedures where a new President is assuming office during a time of economic distress. 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/22581/download.
1/28/1981
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Recording of Telephone Conversations
10/27/2020
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Designation of Assistant Attorney General for Administration.
7/27/2020
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Financial disclosure provisions of Surface Mining Act.
7/27/2020
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Vacancies in the Environmental Protective [sic] Agency
10/27/2020
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Restructuring the Relationship Between the Federal Government and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
No impermissible conflict of interest arises from the practical identity of grantor and grantee of federal funds, where such an arrangement has been authorized by federal statute. No separation of powers concern is implicated by Congress's appropriation of funds directly to a private entity whose functions relate exclusively to the flow of information; nor does this situation raise a problem of excessive delegation of government authority to the private sector. 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/22576/download.
1/23/1981