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 1871–1880 of 2202
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Disclosure of Federal tax returns to State and local law enforcement officials in connection with the work of the New York Joint Strike Force
7/27/2020
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Whether there is any legal impediment to the President delegating to the Secretary of State the authority to sign warrants of extradition agents
10/27/2020
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Constitutionality of the "no-knock" provisions in the Controlled Dangerous Substances Act of 1969
7/27/2020
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The proposed appointment of a member of Congress to be an Assistant to the President
10/27/2020
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The President's Executive Privilege to Withhold Foreign Policy and National Security Information
10/27/2020
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Presidential Authority to Impound Funds Appropriated for Assistance to Federally Impacted Schools
Public Law 81-874 does not provide statutory authority for the Commissioner of Education in the exercise of his discretion to avoid applying the full sum appropriated to the entitlements of local educational agencies for financial assistance to federally impacted schools. The President does not have the constitutional authority to direct the Commissioner of Education or the Bureau of the Budget to impound or otherwise prevent the expenditure of funds appropriated by Congress to carry out the legislation for financial assistance to federally impacted schools, Public Law 81-874. 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/20816/download.
12/1/1969
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Certain stories published in the newspaper, "The Government Employees Exchange"
10/27/2020
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Whether a "Technical" Conflict of Interest Violation Requires Cancellation of a Government Contract
7/27/2020
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Draft UNESCO convention relating to control of the international movement of national art treasures
7/27/2020
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Statutory Language to Avodi Prohibition of Article I, Section 6, United States Constitution
10/27/2020