“A bill to require automatic sealing of certain criminal records, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes automatic sealing of federal arrest and conviction records for covered individuals (i.e., those who are not sex offenders; have no treason, terrorism, or national security convictions; were arrested for a federal offense without conviction or were convicted of simple possession under section 404 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 844) or a covered nonviolent marijuana offense; and, for convictions, have fulfilled all sentence requirements including imprisonment, probation, or supervised release). Sealing occurs (1) one year after sentence fulfillment for qualifying convictions; (2) within 60 days of acquittal, exoneration, or non-conviction judgment; or (3) 180 days after arrest if no charges are filed (with government-requested unsealing permitted to file charges, followed by resealing per the above rules). Sealed records are inaccessible to the public except as specified; affected individuals need not disclose them and are exempt from federal or state perjury, false statement, or false swearing prosecutions (e.g., 18 U.S.C. 1001, 1621) for failing to acknowledge sealed information. "Covered nonviolent marijuana offense" is defined to include nonviolent marijuana violations under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.), Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. 951 et seq.), or 46 U.S.C. ch. 705, excluding those involving other drugs, violence enhancements or threats, or specified serious offenses (e.g., certain distributions under 21 U.S.C. 841(b)(6)-(7), RICO under 18 U.S.C. 1962). (Thus, sealing promotes record expungement-like relief for minor marijuana possession or use, reducing collateral consequences in employment, housing, and licensing.)