Sec. 4. Court review for expungement
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No later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts or their designee(s) (hereby referred to as Director ) shall promulgate procedures or practices for the review, expungement, sealing, sequester, and redaction of official records pursuant to and consistent with the provisions of this Act, and to facilitate the study of such records pursuant to section 7 of this Act. In determining such procedures or practices, the Director may consult with relevant entities, including the Attorney General of the United States and any agency within the United States Department of Justice (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the Office of the Pardon Attorney), representatives of the United States Sentencing Commission, representatives of the Federal Defenders Organizations, scholars and subject-matter experts, and the Comptroller General of the United States.
No later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the chief judge for each Federal district court shall conduct a comprehensive review of its official records, pursuant to the procedures or practices promulgated by the Director under subsection (a), and the chief judge shall issue a court order expunging, sealing, and sequestering— each official record for an expungable event; and any other official record related to or referencing an expungable event, unless such other official record is for a felony or for a misdemeanor unrelated to the pardoned offenses, in which case the court shall redact from such other official record any reference to the expunged official record, and seal or order the sequester of an unaltered nonpublic copy of such other official record.
Not later than 7 days after issuing an expungement order, to notify affected criminal justice agencies and to facilitate the timely update of relevant records, the court shall send a copy of the final order to— the Attorney General of the United States, the United States Attorney for that district in which the order was issued expunging the event, and the relevant criminal justice agency (as defined by paragraph (1)(B)(iii) of section 3) that serves the jurisdiction in which order was issued expunging the event, or if no such agency exists, the chief law enforcement officer of the State or Tribal Nation in which the order was issued expunging the event; the extent practicable, the individual subject to the issued order expunging the event shall be notified about the expungement of an official record to such individual shall provide information about the effect of such expungement; and upon motion or written request of an individual whose official record has been expunged pursuant to this section, the court shall send a copy of the final order to— the relevant criminal justice agency (as defined by paragraph (1)(B)(iii) of section 3) that serves the jurisdiction in which the individual resides or, if no such agency exists, the chief law enforcement officer of the State in which the individual resides, when such criminal justice agency or chief law enforcement officer is different from those notified pursuant to paragraph (1); and any local law enforcement agency that serves the jurisdiction in which the individual resides.
A notification pursuant to this subsection shall not be or become a publicly accessible record that identifies the individual who is the subject of the expungement order, and such notifications shall not be used by criminal justice agencies except for purposes of complying with this Act and court orders issued pursuant to it. Not later than 60 days after the issuance of order expunging an event, the Attorney General of the United States or the United States Attorney for the district in which the order expunging the event was issued may petition the court for reconsideration by timely filing a request in accordance with the applicable Federal rules of procedure and, as best as practicable, providing notice to the affected individual.
The Government shall bear the burden of proving by a preponderance of evidence that the event expunged was not an expungable event or that the interests of justice and of public safety weigh against expungement. The Government or an Intervener may submit to the court relevant evidence and proceedings shall be undertaken consistent with the applicable rules of Federal procedure. The individual subject to the order issued expunging the event may, as a matter of right, intervene in any such reconsideration.
Not later than 60 days after the denial of a motion for reconsideration, the Attorney General of the United States and the United States Attorney for the district in which the order expunging the event was issued may appeal such final order or denial to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for that district by timely filing a Notice of Appeal in accordance with the applicable Federal rules of procedure. The individual subject to the order issued expunging the event shall be the respondent in any such proceeding.