Here’s something quite amazing. The OLC wrote a powerful memo explaining why the Attorney General's independence is vital to our constitutional system. It reads as if it had been drafted this morning, in response to today’s political landscape, but …. /1 knightcolumbia.org/documents/jwhw…
It was written 40 years ago. Ted Olson, then the head of the OLC, wrote it in Feb 1982 for the then-AG, William French Smith, to describe the “responsibilities of the AG to the Constitution.” /2
The memo is one of more than five hundred OLC opinions that @knightcolumbia has obtained over the past months as a result of a settlement with the Justice Department. All of the opinions are here. /3 knightcolumbia.org/reading-room/o…
The most remarkable parts of this particular memo are about the independence of the AG, and about the responsibility of the AG to “establish justice.” “There is no more important goal in the Constitution or in the minds of the citizens of this nation,” the memo says. /4
The idea that the AG should be independent, and that s/he should establish justice, is hardly novel. Still, I’ve never seen the point made in such forceful terms: /5
The memo’s warning has not always been heeded, to state the obvious. Whether Olson was right about what the people will tolerate, or what Congress will do… well, I guess we’re still finding out. More: /6
I don’t know why this eloquent defense of the rule of law has been withheld from the public for four decades. Seems like it should be a reading assignment in every civics class. Here’s how it closes: /7
In sum: This is an extraordinary document, with important things to say about questions that have been especially salient over the past few years, and that are still salient now. It shouldn’t have been withheld for so long. /8
Disclosure: Ted Olson, who wrote the 1982 memo, is a @knightcolumbia board member. He didn’t have a role in the lawsuit mentioned above, and he hasn’t been involved in helping us review the memos we’ve obtained through the suit. /END
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