Opinions

This opinion reviews a possible Federal Financing Bank sale of loan assets to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and other possible related transactions between the FFB and the Department of the Treasury, and concludes that the contemplated transactions would be permissible under existing law.

The President may impose certain conditions upon a drug producing or transit country seeking certification under section 490(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. If he chooses to certify a country under section 490(b)(1)(B), he can withhold funds from the country to encourage compliance with a set of specified conditions. Alternatively, the President can determine not to certify a country in his annual certification report but inform the country that it might be recertified outside the annual cycle if it meets certain conditions. The first alternative offers greater flexibility to the President as, under the latter approach, the President is constrained in the exercise of his discretion by specific statutory requirements and his determination is subject to congressional review.

Restricting the import of certain classes of Russian firearms and ammunition that are deemed an unacceptable risk to public safety is a legitimate use of the President’s authority under the Arms Export Control Act to restrict the import of munitions in furtherance of United States foreign policy.

Subject to the provisions of state law, state and local police may constitutionally detain or arrest aliens for violating the criminal provisions of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

State and local police lack recognized legal authority to stop and detain an alien solely on suspicion of civil deportability, as opposed to a criminal violation of the immigration laws or other laws.

State and local police may detain aliens reasonably suspected of a criminal violation of the immigration laws for periods of as long as 45 to 60 minutes when detentions of that length are necessary to allow for the arrival of Border Patrol agents who are needed for the informed federal disposition of the suspected violations.

The $20 million that the Immigration and Naturalization Act makes available, in the Immigration Emergency Fund, for reimbursement of states and localities for certain immigration-related assistance is available annually, not just one time during the life of the IEF.

The District of Columbia’s Clean Air Compliance Fee is a tax and may not be imposed on the federal government, because the D.C. Council lacks authority to impose taxes on the property of the United States.

Section 458 of title 28 does not apply to presidential appointments of judges to the federal judiciary.

A bill that would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to certain classes of alien parents is unconstitutional on its face.

A constitutional amendment to restrict birthright citizenship, although not technically unlawful, would flatly contradict the Nation’s constitutional history and constitutional traditions.

Where Congress has provided appropriations for the legislative branch, the Department of Justice may continue to provide testimony at hearings and perform other services related to funded functions of the legislative branch during a lapse in funding for the Department, if the participation of the Department is necessary for the hearing or other funded function to be effective.

Similarly, those functions of the Department o f Justice that are necessary to the effective execution of functions by an agency or department of government that has current fiscal year appropriations, such that a suspension of the Department’s functions during a lapse in its own appropriations would prevent or significantly damage the execution of those funded functions, may continue during the Department’s funding lapse.

The President, acting without specific statutory authorization, may lawfully introduce United States ground troops into Bosnia in order to assist the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to ensure compliance with a peace agreement.