A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled the Office of Legal Counsel may not be able to automatically keep most of its opinions secret, but also determined that not all of the opinions should be proactively released under open records law.

U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the District of Columbia made the ruling in a lawsuit from the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability seeking the full release of the typically secret OLC opinions. The legal opinions from the DOJ office are considered to be binding on executive officials unless overturned by the president or attorney general.