[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7619 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7619
To provide for the publication of OLC opinions, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 28, 2022
Mr. Cartwright (for himself, Ms. Norton, Mr. Raskin, Ms. Jacobs of
California, Ms. Matsui, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, and Ms. Tlaib)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for the publication of OLC opinions, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``See UNdisclosed Legal
Interpretations and Get Honest Transparency Act of 2022'' or as the
``SUNLIGHT Act of 2022''.
SEC. 2. SCHEDULE OF PUBLICATION FOR FINAL OLC OPINIONS.
Each final opinion issued by the Office of Legal Counsel must be
made publicly available in its entirety as soon as is practicable,
but--
(1) not later than 30 days after the opinion is issued or
updated if such action takes place on or after the date of
enactment of this Act;
(2) not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of
this Act for an opinion issued on or after January 20, 1993;
(3) not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of
this Act for an opinion issued on or after January 20, 1981 and
before or on January 19, 1993;
(4) not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of
this Act for an opinion issued on or after January 20, 1969 and
before or on January 19, 1981; and
(5) not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of
this Act for all other opinions.
SEC. 3. EXCEPTIONS AND LIMITATION ON PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF FINAL OLC
OPINIONS.
(a) In General.--A final OLC opinion or part thereof may be
withheld only to the extent--
(1) information contained in the opinion was--
(A) specifically authorized to be kept secret,
under criteria established by an Executive order, in
the interest of national defense or foreign policy;
(B) in fact properly classified, including all
procedural and marking requirements, pursuant to such
Executive order;
(C) the Attorney General determines that the
national defense or foreign policy interests protected
outweigh the public's interest in access to the
information; and
(D) has been put through declassification review
within the past two years;
(2) information contained in the opinion relates to the
appointment of a specific individual not confirmed to Federal
office;
(3) information contained in the opinion is specifically
exempted from disclosure by statute (other than sections 552
and 552b of title 5, United States Code), provided that such
statute--
(A) requires that the material be withheld in such
a manner as to leave no discretion on the issue; or
(B) establishes particular criteria for withholding
or refers to particular types of material to be
withheld;
(4) information in the opinion includes trade secrets and
commercial or financial information obtained from a person and
privileged or confidential whose disclosure would likely cause
substantial harm to the competitive position of the person from
whom the information was obtained;
(5) the President, in his or her sole and nondelegable
determination, formally and personally claims in writing that
executive privilege prevents the release of the information and
disclosure would cause specific identifiable harm to an
interest protected by an exception or the disclosure is
prohibited by law; or
(6) information in the opinion includes personnel and
medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would
constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
(b) Determination To Withhold.--Any determination under this
section to withhold information contained in a final OLC opinion must
be made by the Attorney General or a designee of the Attorney General.
The determination shall be--
(1) in writing;
(2) made available to the public within the same timeframe
as is required of a formal OLC opinion;
(3) sufficiently detailed as to inform the public of what
kind of information is being withheld and the reason therefore;
and
(4) effective only for a period of 3 years, subject to
review and reissuance, with each reissuance made available to
the public.
(c) Final Opinions.--For final OLC opinions for which the text is
withheld in full or in substantial part, a detailed unclassified
summary of the opinion must be made available to the public, in the
same timeframe as required of the final OLC opinion, that conveys the
essence of the opinion, including any interpretations of a statute, the
Constitution, or other legal authority. A notation must be included in
any published list of OLC opinions regarding the extent of the
withholdings.
(d) No Limitation on Relief.--A decision by the Attorney General to
release or withhold information pursuant to this Act shall not preclude
any action or relief conferred by statutory or regulatory regime that
empowers any person to request or demand the release of information.
(e) Reasonably Segregable Portions of Opinions To Be Published.--
Any reasonably segregable portion of an opinion shall be provided after
withholding of the portions which are exempt under this subsection. The
amount of information withheld, and the exemption under which the
withholding is made, shall be indicated on the released portion of the
opinion, unless including that indication would harm an interest
protected by the exemption in this subsection under which the
withholding is made. If technically feasible, the amount of the
information withheld, and the exemption under which the withholding is
made, shall be indicated at the place in the opinion where such
withholding is made.
SEC. 4. METHOD OF PUBLICATION.
The Attorney General shall publish each final OLC opinion to the
extent the law permits, including by publishing the opinions on a
publicly accessible website that--
(1) with respect to each opinion--
(A) contains an electronic copy of the opinion,
including any transmittal letter associated with the
opinion, in an open format that is platform independent
and that is available to the public without
restrictions;
(B) provides the public the ability to retrieve an
opinion, to the extent practicable, through searches
based on--
(i) the title of the opinion;
(ii) the date of publication or revision;
or
(iii) the full text of the opinion;
(C) identifies the time and date when the opinion
was required to be published, and when the opinion was
transmitted for publication; and
(D) provides a permanent means of accessing the
opinion electronically;
(2) includes a means for bulk download of all OLC opinions
or a selection of opinions retrieved using a text-based search;
(3) provides free access to the opinions, and does not
charge a fee, require registration, or impose any other
limitation in exchange for access to the website; and
(4) is capable of being upgraded as necessary to carry out
the purposes of this Act.
SEC. 5. INDEX OF OPINIONS.
(a) In General.--The Office of Legal Counsel shall publish ---
(1) a complete list of final OLC opinions, arranged
chronologically, within 90 days of the enactment of this
legislation;
(2) the list of opinions shall be updated immediately every
time an OLC opinion becomes final; and
(3) a revision to an opinion shall be listed as if it were
a new opinion.
(b) Requirements as to List.--Each list under subsection (a) shall
comply with the following:
(1) Publication.--The list must be made available to the
public by publication on the website in section 4.
(2) Information and format required.--The list shall --
(A) include, for each opinion--
(i) the full name of the opinion;
(ii) the date it was finalized or revised;
(iii) each author's name;
(iv) each recipient's name;
(v) a summary of the opinion;
(vi) a unique identifier assigned to each
final or revised opinion; and
(vii) whether an opinion has been
withdrawn; and
(B) be published in both human-readable and
machine-readable formats.
SEC. 6. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.
On complaint, the district court of the United States in the
district in which the complainant resides, or has his principal place
of business, or in the District of Columbia, has jurisdiction to enjoin
the agency from withholding information contained in a final OLC
opinion and to order the production of information improperly withheld
from the complainant. In such a case the court shall determine the
matter de novo, and may examine the contents of such OLC opinion in
camera to determine whether such information or any part thereof shall
be withheld under any of the exemptions set forth in section 3, and the
burden is on the agency to sustain its action.
SEC. 7. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act, any amendment made by this Act, or
the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid,
the validity of the remainder of the Act, of any such amendments, and
of the application of such provisions to other persons and
circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.
(a) OLC Opinion.--The term ``OLC opinion'' means views on a matter
of legal interpretation communicated by the Office of Legal Counsel of
the Department of Justice to any other office or agency, or person in
an office or agency, in the Executive Branch, including any office in
the Department of Justice, the White House, or the Executive Office of
the President, and rendered in accordance with sections 511-513 of
title 28, United States Code. Where the communication of the legal
interpretation takes place verbally, a memorialization of that
communication qualifies as an ``OLC opinion''.
(b) Final OLC Opinion.--The term ``final OLC opinion'' means an OLC
opinion that--
(1) the Attorney General, Assistant Attorney General for
OLC, or a Deputy Assistant General for OLC, has determined is
final;
(2) government officials or government contractors are
relying on;
(3) is relied upon to formulate legal guidance; or
(4) is directly or indirectly cited in another Office of
Legal Counsel opinion.
(c) Revised OLC Opinion.--The term ``revised OLC opinion'' means an
OLC opinion that is withdrawn, information is added to, or information
is removed from.
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