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 1251–1260 of 2202
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Disclosure of Information
7/27/2020
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Legality of the International Agreement with Iran and Its Implementing Executive Orders (I)
Executive orders providing for the establishment of escrow accounts with the Bank of England and the Central Bank of Algeria, directing the transfer of previously blocked Iranian government assets to those accounts, and nullifying all interests in the assets other than the interests of Iran and its agents, are within the President's authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Banks and other holders of Iranian assets need not await formal vacation of court-ordered attachments before complying with transfer orders, since they as well as Executive Branch officials are relieved from any liability for actions taken in good faith in reliance on the IEEPA. Executive order prohibiting the prosecution of any claims against Iran arising from the hostage seizure, and terminating any previously instituted judicial proceedings based on such a claim, is within the President's authority under the IEEPA and the Hostage Act. The order does not purport to preclude any claimant from petitioning Congress for relief in connection with his claim, nor could it constitutionally do so. Provisions of executive order blocking property of the former Shah's estate and that of his close relatives, and requiring all persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to submit to the Secretary of the Treasury information about this property to be made available to the government of Iran, are within the President's authority under the IEEPA. Proposed order also directs the Attorney General to assert in appropriate courts that claims of Iran for recovery of this property are not barred by foreign sovereign immunity or act of state doctrines, and asserts that all Iranian decrees relating to the former Shah and his family should be enforced in courts of the United States. The President has constitutionally and congressionally conferred authority to enter an agreement designating the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal as the sole forum for determination of claims by the United States or its nationals against Iran, and to confer upon the Tribunal jurisdiction over claims against the United States. 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/22421/download.
1/19/1981
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The Power of Congress to Abrogate its Members' Rights under the Speech or Debate Clause
7/27/2020
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Proposed Justice Management Division Internal Audit of Parole Commission
7/27/2020
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Designation of Acting Heads for Action Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Small Business Association
10/27/2020
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The Effect of the Concurrent Resolution Provision of § 126(b) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, on the President's Power to Authorize the Export of Nuclear Material and Equipment
10/27/2020
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The President's Power to Set the Terms and Conditions of Nuclear Exports He Authorizes
10/27/2020
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Whether the President is empowered to make recess appointments of the directors of the corporation, even though the corporation is not an agency or establishment of the United States Government, 47 U.S.C. § 396(b), and its directors are not, by reason of
10/27/2020
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Authority for the Continuance of Government Functions During a Temporary Lapse in Appropriations
Statutory authority for an agency to incur obligations in advance of appropriations heed not be express, but may be implied from the specific duties that: have been imposed upon, or of authorities that have been invested in, the agency. The "authorized by law" exception in the Antideficiency Act exempts from that Act's general prohibition not only those obligations for which there is statutory authority, but also those obligations necessarily incident to initiatives undertaken within the President's constitutional powers. A government agency may employ personal services in advance of appropriations only when there is a reasonable and articulable connection between the function to be performed and the safety of human life or the protection of property, and when there is some reasonable likelihood that either or both would be compromised in some degree by delay in the performance of the function in question. 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/22536/download.
1/16/1981
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Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Investigate Police Killings
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is not presently authorized to investigate killings of non-federal law enforcement officers which involve only violations of state law, even in response to a presidential directive. 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/22571/download.
1/16/1981