§2000aa–11 Guidelines for Federal Officers and Employees

Summary

The Attorney General must, within six months of October 13, 1980, create rules for how federal officers and employees can get private papers from someone who is not a suspect and who is not related to a suspect, when the papers are not illegal to possess. The rules must protect the person’s privacy, require the least intrusive way to get the papers that won’t seriously risk losing them, show special care when the search would break a confidential relationship (for example, clergyman and parishioner; lawyer and client; doctor and patient), and require a government attorney to approve any warrant application. In an emergency, a different supervisor may approve, but the appropriate United States Attorney must be told within 24 hours. The Attorney General must also collect information and send a yearly report to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees about how often federal officers use search warrants for documents that would affect those confidential relationships.