The OLC
Astrid Da Silva

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).

Some opinion descriptions were drafted by the OLC, some were prepared by Knight First Amendment Institute staff, and some were generated using AI tools.

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 1051–1060 of 2214

  • Procedures for Investigating Allegations Concerning Senior Administration Officials

    A proposal whereby personnel from one agency's Office of Inspector General would conduct an investigation of allegations of non-criminal misconduct by employees of another agency, or by the head of another agency, and report to the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, is of questionable legality. The President has inherent authority to supervise and direct the performance of his appointees in office, and to investigate allegations of possible misconduct related to that performance. Under the Inspector General Act, an Inspector General and his staff are authorized to conduct investigations into allegations of misconduct only when those allegations involve fraud and abuse in the programs and operations of the particular agency in which the office is located. An agency head has authority to investigate allegations of misconduct against any officer or employee of his agency, including the agency's Inspector General. If under the circumstances he deems it prudent, an agency head may request that investigative personnel be detailed from another agency on a reimbursable basis to conduct such an investigation, though in such a case the investigative authority of any such detailed personnel could not exceed his own. 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/23211/download.

    11/5/1982

  • Acceptance of Legal Fees by United States Attorney

    United States Attorney would be prohibited by 18 U.S.C. § 205(1) from accepting an attorney's fee generated in a case that he handled while in private practice, if the lawsuit were determined to constitute a claim against the United States, and if his interest in the fee was of a contingent nature at the time he began government service. Whether a matter in litigation constitutes a claim against the United States for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 205 depends not upon whether the United States is a plaintiff or defendant, but upon whether the United States has a significant monetary interest at stake in the lawsuit. 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/23201/download.

    11/4/1982

  • Information Sharing Between Supervisory Agencies Under the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978

    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) may make available to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in its capacity as a receiver of a failed national bank, OCC examination reports on that bank, notwithstanding the general prohibitions on disclosure in the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978. Such disclosure falls within two exceptions in that Act for information exchanges between government "supervisory" agencies, whether or not the FDIC is actually performing a "supervisory" function in its capacity as a receiver. 12 U.S.C. § 3412(d) and (e). 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/23196/download.

    10/29/1982

  • Constitutionality of Committee Approval Provision in Department of Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act

    Provision for prior congressional committee approval of an executive officer's exercise of statutory authority is an unconstitutional legislative veto, and is of no legally binding effect. Accordingly, such a provision in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) appropriations act cannot operate to prohibit the Secretary of HUD from undertaking certain otherwise authorized actions in connection with a planned departmental reorganization. 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/23191/download.

    10/27/1982

  • Recess Appointments Issues

    The following memorandum reviews a number of legal and constitutional issues relating to the President's power to make appointments during a recess of the Senate, concluding that there have been no developments which call into question the conclusions of a 1960 Attorney General opinion, 41 Op. Att'y Gen. 463. It also contrasts the language, effects and purposes of the Pocket Veto and Recess Appointments Clauses. 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/23186/download.

    10/25/1982

  • Applicability of 21 U.S.C. § 952(a) to the Importation of Morphine Sulfate by the General Services Administration

    The provision in 21 U.S C. § 952(a), which prohibits importation of certain controlled substances except in certain specified circumstances, applies to importation by the United States government. Notwithstanding the canon of statutory construction that a law should not be read to impose new burdens on the government in derogation of its preexisting nghts and privileges, well-established and consistent administrative practice and interpretation of the coverage of 21 U.S.C. § 952(a), as well as its legislative history, indicate that that law covers importations by the United States government. 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/23181/download.

    10/18/1982

  • Authority of Military Investigators to Request Search Warrants Under Rule 41

    There is no legal impediment to the Attorney General's amending 28 C.F.R. § 60.2(g) to add military members of Department of Defense investigative agencies to the list of law enforcement officers authorized to seek and execute search warrants pursuant to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Posse Comitatus Act does not prohibit the issuance of search warrants to military investigators engaged in the enforcement of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), since that statute only restricts military involvement in civilian law enforcement activities. Military investigators engaged in the enforcement of the UCMJ may be regarded as "federal law enforcement officers" within the scope of Rule 41, and federal magistrates would thus be authonzed to issue civilian search warrants to them upon the appropriate amendment of 28 C.F.R. § 60.2(g). 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/23176/download.

    10/18/1982

  • Propriety of Asserting a Governmental Privilege in Response to a Court Order

    Both the common law governmental pnvilege and the constitutionally based executive privilege may be asserted to protect certain documents reflecting the deliberation of close presidential advisers from disclosure in response to a court order. 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/23171/download.

    10/13/1982

  • Presidential Authority to Adjust Ferroalloy Imports Under § 232(b) of the TVade Expansion Act of 1962

    The President has authority to upgrade two ferroalloys currently held in the National Defense Stockpile, and remove one of these ferroalloys from the Generalized System of Preferences established under the Trade Act of 1974, in response to a "national security" finding under § 232(b) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, 19 U.S.C. § 1862(b). This authority stems not from § 232(b) itself, but from separate and independent statutory schemes. The above-described actions will satisfy the President's obligation under § 232(b) to take such actions as are necessary to "adjust imports" in responding to a threat to the national security. 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/23166/download.

    10/5/1982

  • Continuation of Agency Activities During a Lapse in Both Authorization and Appropriation

    During a lapse in both an agency's authorization and its appropriation, activities may continue only to the extent they were authorized prior to the enactment of any specific lapsed authorization, and only to the extent they fit within the "emergency" exception to the Antideficiency 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/23161/download.

    9/17/1982

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