[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4556 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4556

To provide for the publication of OLC opinions, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 27, 2019

Mr. Cartwright (for himself, Mr. Quigley, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Raskin, Mrs. 
Davis of California, Mr. Clay, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. 
 Cardenas, Ms. Hill of California, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Ms. Norton, 
Ms. Tlaib, and Mr. Blumenauer) 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 2019'' or as the 
``SUNLIGHT Act of 2019''.

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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