Department of Justice 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Justice has adopted as final, without change, an interim rule that amended the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (``ATF'') to delegate to the Director of ATF the authority to serve as the deciding official regarding the denial, suspension, or revocation of federal firearms licenses, or the imposition of a civil fine. Under the interim rule, the Director has the flexibility to delegate to another ATF official the authority to decide a revocation or denial matter, or may exercise that authority himself. Because the Director can redelegate authority to take action as the final agency decision-maker to Headquarters officials, field officials, or some combination thereof, such flexibility allows ATF to more efficiently conduct denial, suspension, and revocation hearings, and make the determination whether to impose a civil fine. This gives the agency the ability to ensure consistency in

Pursuant to the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, the Department of Justice promulgated a final rule to implement certification procedures for States seeking to qualify for the special Federal habeas corpus review procedures in capital cases afforded under chapter 154 of title 28 of the United States Code. See Certification Process for State Capital Counsel Systems, 73 FR 75327 (Dec. 11, 2008). A Federal district court issued an injunction requiring the Department to provide an additional public comment period and publish a response to any comments received during that period. The Department then solicited further public comments. By this proposed rule, the Department is proposing to remove the December 11, 2008 regulations. The Department will issue new regulations on this subject by separate rulemaking after the December 2008 regulations are removed.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is publishing this notice of its Final Plan for fiscal year (FY) 2010.

The U.S. Parole Commission proposes to amend a rule that implements its authority under the District of Columbia Youth Rehabilitation Act to set aside a conviction for a youth offender. The proposed rule specifies the Commission's authority to set aside a youth offender's misdemeanor conviction and describes the information the Commission examines in making such a determination, given that the misdemeanant only served a jail term for the offense without subsequent community supervision on parole or supervised release. In addition, the rule clarifies the Commission's policy for issuing a set-aside certificate for a youth offender who was formerly on supervised release and who was not reviewed for the set-aside certificate before the offender's sentence expired. The proposed rule adopts the Commission's established criteria for conducting set-aside reviews when a youth offender's parole term ends before such a review has been held.