OLC Opinion Signed by T. Elliot Gaiser Declares the Presidential Records Act Unconstitutional and Says the President Need Not Comply

The Office of Legal Counsel’s slip opinion Constitutionality of the Presidential Records Act is dated April 1, 2026 and is addressed as a “MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT”. It is signed by T. Elliot Gaiser, Assistant Attorney General. Its closing holding: “the PRA is unconstitutional, and the President need not further comply with its dictates.”

Dates kept apart. The opinion’s own date is April 1, 2026. It was public by the next day: a complaint says White House Counsel David Warrington issued a policy memorandum on April 2, 2026 adopting it, and CNN reported that OLC “issued an opinion Thursday that said the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional.” Later reporting that recounts the opinion is a retelling, not a new event, and is not this entry’s date.

What it is and is not. An OLC opinion is legal advice to the executive branch; it does not amend the Act, which remains in the statute books.

Sourcing note. The opinion text was fetched from justice.gov and read; the holding and signer are quoted from it. The White House memorandum is cited only through the plaintiffs’ complaint and was not itself read. The OLC opinions index could not be paged in this pass, so its posting date is unconfirmed.