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Department of Justice Releases Nine Office of Legal Counsel Memoranda and Opinions

From the press release: The Department of Justice released two previously undisclosed Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memoranda and seven previously undisclosed opinions.

The two memoranda memorialized that certain legal propositions in ten OLC opinions issued between 2001 and 2003 no longer reflected the views of OLC and "should not be treated as authoritative for any purpose." They further explained that some of the underlying opinions had been withdrawn or superseded and that "caution should be exercised" by the executive branch "before relying in other respects" on the other opinions that had not been superseded or withdrawn.

In light of the legitimate and substantial public interest in many of the questions raised in those opinions and in the evolution of OLC?s views on those questions, the Department has released the six of those underlying opinions from 2001-2003 that are not classified and that had not previously been disclosed.

The opinions and memoranda are available here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Full post as published by Virtual Library Cat's Eye View on March 03, 2009 (boomark / email).