November 15, 2001: OLC Lawyers Assert Bush Can Unilaterally Amend ABM Treaty with Russia

John Yoo and Robert Delahunty of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) write a classified memo to John Bellinger, the senior legal counsel to the National Security Council. Yoo and Delahunty claim that President Bush has the unilateral authority to “suspend certain articles” of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the US and Russia (see May 26, 1972). Six months later, President Bush will withdraw the US from the treaty (see December 13, 2001). [US Department of Justice, 11/15/2001 ; American Civil Liberties Union, 1/28/2009 ] The memo will not be released until two months after the Bush administration leaves the White House (see March 2, 2009).