Reading Room Document

Standards for Closing a Meeting of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy

The Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy is subject to the requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which provides that advisory committee meetings may be closed to the public only upon a determination that one or more of the exemptions of the Government in the Sunshine Act is applicable. The December 1980 meeting of the Commission may not be closed in its entirety for national security and foreign policy reasons, insofar as it deals with matters not relating to those issues; the spirit of the Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that the meeting agenda be structured so that classified and other exempt information is considered separately from the main, and congressionally mandated public, policy discussions and decisionmaking activities of the Commission. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22306/download.

October 10, 1980