The Office of the Oregon Legislative Counsel is a government agency in the U.S. state of Oregon. The office was established in 1953, primarily to offer legal services to the members and committees of the Oregon Legislative Assembly.
The office drafts legislation, conducts legal research, writes opinions, compiles and publishes session laws and the Oregon Revised Statutes, and reviews administrative rules submitted by agencies of the executive branch of the government of Oregon. It also assists the Oregon Law Commission in revising, reforming, and improving the law.
The Legislative Counsel Committee, composed of members of both the Oregon State Senate and the Oregon House of Representatives, oversees the office. Dexter Johnson is the current Legislative Counsel, serving as the chief executive of the office.
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“The Oregon [matter] and the annexation of Texas are now all- important to the security and future peace and prosperity of our union, and I hope there are a sufficient number of pure American democrats to carry into effect the annexation of Texas and [extension of] our laws over Oregon. No temporizing policy or all is lost.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
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What love sincere and reverence in my heart
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,
Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant
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Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid,
Thy counsel in this uttermost distress,
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Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?”
—John Milton (1608–1674)