Anybody know anything about this?

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That 
the Secretary of the Senate, in the enrollment of the bill (S. 735) 
shall make the following corrections: (Enrolled Bill (Sent to 
President)) 

--S.Con.Res.55-- 

S.Con.Res.55 

Agreed to April 24, 1996 

One Hundred Fourth Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE SECOND SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 
the third day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-six 

Concurrent Resolution 

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That 
the Secretary of the Senate, in the enrollment of the bill (S. 735) 
shall make the following corrections:

...

`(g) LIMITATION ON DISCOVERY-

        `(1) IN GENERAL- (A) Subject to paragraph (2), if an action
        is filed that would otherwise be barred by section 1604, but
        for subsection (a)(7), the court, upon request of the
        Attorney General, shall stay any request, demand, or order
        for discovery on the United States that the Attorney General
        certifies would significantly interfere with a criminal
        investigation or prosecution, or a national security
        operation, related to the incident that gave rise to the
        cause of action, until such time as the Attorney General
        advises the court that such request, demand, or order will
        no longer so interfere.

        `(B) A stay under this paragraph shall be in effect during
        the 12-month period beginning on the date on which the court
        issues the order to stay discovery. The court shall renew
        the order to stay discovery for additional 12-month periods
        upon motion by the United States if the Attorney General
        certifies that discovery would significantly interfere with
        a criminal investigation or prosecution, or a national
        security operation, related to the incident that gave rise
        to the cause of action.

        `(2) SUNSET- (A) Subject to subparagraph (B), no stay shall
        be granted or continued in effect under paragraph (1) after
        the date that is 10 years after the date on which the
        incident that gave rise to the cause of action occurred.

        `(B) After the period referred to in subparagraph (A), the
        court, upon request of the Attorney General, may stay any
        request, demand, or order for discovery on the United States
        that the court finds a substantial likelihood would--

        `(i) create a serious threat of death or serious bodily
        injury to any person;

        `(ii) adversely affect the ability of the United States to
        work in cooperation with foreign and international law
        enforcement agencies in investigating violations of United
        States law; or

        `(iii) obstruct the criminal case related to the incident
        that gave rise to the cause of action or undermine the
        potential for a conviction in such case.

On Sat, 27 Apr 1996 anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.com wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> 
> Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That
> the Secretary of the Senate, in the enrollment of the bill (S. 735)
> shall make the following corrections: (Enrolled Bill (Sent to
> President))

Looks like lawyerese from the conference report reconciling the house and
senate versions of the bill to me. I only speak english, Spanish, HTML,
and perl, but given more information, I might try. Please give a better
citation of the source next time so that we ("we") have a chance in hell
of investigating further. 

It appears to be an elucidation of legal ways for the guvmint to refuse to
release information on pending investigations of enumerated terrorist and
organized crime groups, of course. What parts of it are more or less
injurious to civil liberties than current law, I don't know. Get the full
text, the references, and a lawyer. All you're likely to get here is
speculation.

I usually trust and agree with EPIC, CDT, EFF, and the ACLU -- if they
have stated a position. I know they generally opposed the whole enchilada
of S.735 (which was "The Anti-Terrorism Bill"), but I don't know about
these provisions.

The Congressional Record is at http://thomas.loc.gov/
The US Code is at http://www.law.cornell.edu/

I don't know where to get the CFR online; anybody?

-rich