Also known as: officer · official · offices · officers · officials · ex officio · public office · officer of the court
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A position of duty, trust, or authority conferred by governmental authority for a public purpose.
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Odin Obeng, a newly elected member of Congress, receives a salary set by federal statute paid from the Treasury. When a state attempts to tax that compensation, the court holds the federal statute controls because the position is an office created under Article I authority.
Olympia Steel faces an enforcement action by a state environmental agency. During negotiations, its counsel offers to install new equipment. When the agency later seeks to introduce the offer in a criminal prosecution, the court excludes it because the statement was made during compromise negotiations involving a public office exercising enforcement authority.
Judge Olga O'Neill refers repeatedly to a defendant's ethnicity while imposing sentence. The appellate court reverses, holding that the comments manifested bias in the performance of judicial duties and violated the prohibition on a judge using words or conduct to show prejudice based on protected characteristics.
After leaving the Department of Labor, Otto Osman joins a firm representing a company adverse to a former regulated party. Using information he acquired as a public officer that remains confidential, he drafts pleadings that disadvantage that party. The court disqualifies him because the lawyer may not represent a private client whose interests are adverse when the information could materially harm the person.
Odin Oberon, a federal agency head whose office directs all major regulatory decisions from its headquarters in the District of Columbia, is sued in federal court. The court determines the action is properly venued there because the office functions as the nerve center of governmental authority.
Oliver Okeke, claiming to act under authority of a public land office that holds title, signs a deed conveying land. Because he lacks proper governmental authority to execute the instrument, the court holds the deed voidable at the election of the true record owner.
No. The core legal meaning requires governmental authority conferring the position for a public purpose. Private corporate roles may be labeled officers but do not qualify as offices under the constitutional and ethics rules that use the term.
…be a specific legal remedy for the commission. The judgment in detinue is for the thing itself or its value. The value of a public office not to be sold is incapable of being ascertained; the applicant has a right to the office itself or to nothing. He will obtain the office by obtaining the commission or a copy of it from…