In today's inbox:
quote:National Security Archive Update, November 28, 2001
HISTORIANS, PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS SUE TO STOP BUSH ORDER
Say New Restrictions on White House Files Violate Presidential Records Act
"Bush Order Attempts to Overturn the Law, Take the Power Back"
http://www.nsarchive.org/news/20011128
Washington D.C., 28 November 2001- Today the National Security Archive at
George Washington University joined the American Historical Association
(AHA) and other scholars and public interest groups in filing suit to stop
implementation of President Bush's November 1st executive order 13,233 which
limits public access to presidential records. For a copy of the complaint
and related documents, see www.nsarchive.org and www.citizen.org .
Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group (lead attorney Scott Nelson),
the plaintiffs include the Archive, the AHA, the Organization of American
Historians, Vanderbilt University Professor Hugh Graham, the University of
Wisconsin Professor Stanley Kutler, Public Citizen and the Reporters'
Committee for Freedom of the Press.
The legal brief filed today in U.S. District Court in Washington argues that
the Bush executive order violates the Presidential Records Act and asks for
a declaratory judgment preventing the Archivist of the United States from
implementing the order. The suit also requests the court to compel release of
68,000 pages of records from former President Reagan's files that have been
withheld at the direction of the Bush White House since January despite the
direct requirements of the Presidential Records Act.
"The Presidential Records Act of 1978 was meant to shift power over White
House documents from former presidents to professional government archivists
and ultimately to the public," commented National Security Archive director
Thomas Blanton. "But the Bush order attempts to overturn the law, take the
power back, and let presidents past and present delay public access
indefinitely."
Among other successful cases, the National Security Archive and Public Citizen Litigation Group brought the 1989 lawsuit that overcame the legal resistance of three administrations (Reagan, Bush I, Clinton) to save the White House e-mail for posterity. The Archive currently has Freedom of Information Act requests pending at the Reagan Presidential Library (Simi Valley, California) and the Bush Presidential Library (College Station, Texas) for records covered by the November 1st executive order.
The documents are available at the following URL:
http://www.nsarchive.org/news/20011128
|
