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For immediate release,
28 November 2001 |
For more information:
Thomas Blanton, 202/994-7068
Scott Nelson, 202/588-7724 |
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”
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.
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