Law Commons^™

Supervisory Responsibility For The Office Of Legal Counsel, Avidan Y. Cover

Faculty Publications

In the wake of the notorious Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) torture memoranda, various reforms have been proposed to prevent future erroneous and poorly reasoned legal opinions on matters of the utmost national importance. The need for reform is all the more pressing in a post-9/11 world in which the Executive Branch will continue to arrogate, often in secret, various national security-related powers. None of the proposals, however, addresses the supervisory role that Justice Department and other Executive Branch lawyers play in the formation of OLC opinions.

This Article argues that the failure to hold more senior government …