The Office of Legal Counsel

By Kristopher Nelson in the Spring of 2009

Is the Office of Legal Counsel Constitutional? Some notes on the American Conseil Constitutionnel – Balkinization:

The bottom line is that the OLC has become one of the most important law making bodies in our constitutional system, creating binding law that affects what is by far the largest branch of our government. For this reason, we should begin to understand the OLC more in the way that we view the Supreme Court and the federal courts of appeals. That is, we should begin to think of it more and more as a quasi-judicial institution.

An interesting discussion of the “Office of Legal Counsel” and it’s role as a kind of executive branch supreme court that specializes only in advisory opinions, something the actual, judicial branch Supreme Court is forbidden to do.

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About Kristopher Nelson

I'm currently a graduate student of the history of law and technology at the University of California, San Diego. I also provide law and technology consulting services. Additionally, I'm a non-practicing lawyer and former developer/sysadmin at a biotech non-profit. For more about me and my work, see krisnelson.org or my Google Profile.

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