Public Law P.L. 102-526 — President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992
Public Law P.L. 102-526 — President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, enacted 1992-10-26. Every recorded vote below is cited to the official government record.
Public Law P.L. 102-526 was enacted on 1992-10-26.
Sealed the JFK files by law, and gave agencies the grounds to keep them sealed. The 1992 Act created the National Archives collection and a presumption of immediate disclosure — and in the same text wrote down the reasons a record may be POSTPONED instead: intelligence sources and methods, foreign relations, an identity still needing protection. Those grounds are what more than sixty years of withholding runs on. The Act has no end date either: under section 12 it stays in effect until the Archivist certifies that every assassination record has been released, and that certification has never been made.
Permits postponement of public disclosure where there is clear and convincing evidence of, among other grounds, a threat to military defence, intelligence operations or the conduct of foreign relations that outweighs the public interest, including where disclosure would reveal an intelligence agent whose identity currently requires protection, or a source or method currently in use.
Provides that the remaining provisions of the Act continue in effect until the Archivist certifies that all assassination records have been made available to the public in accordance with the Act.