freedom of information

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

[wonder how many economic historians signed onto the briefs]

Records Order Spurs Lawsuit
Groups Oppose Bush Limit on Access to Presidential Papers

By Bill Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 29, 2001; Page A31


Historians and public interest groups filed a lawsuit yesterday asking
a federal judge to strike down an executive order signed by President
Bush that restricts access to presidential records, arguing that the
action illegally promotes secrecy.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court here accuses the Bush
administration of violating the 1978 Presidential Records Act,
maintaining the law was meant to limit presidential control over
records and promote public access to papers and other materials after
presidents leave office.

"We will not stand by while the administration tramples on the
people's right to find out about their own government," said Joan
Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a watchdog group that joined
in the suit. "The president should not have the ability to arbitrarily
withhold public information to hide wrongdoing or avoid
embarrassment."

Other plaintiffs include the American Historical Association, the
National Security Archive, the Organization of American Historians,
the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and presidential
historians Hugh Davis Graham and Stanley I. Kutler.

White House spokeswoman Anne Womack said Bush's order is "sound law
and sound policy" and backed by a 1977 Supreme Court ruling that
former presidents can continue to assert various constitutional
privileges for their records.

Susan Cooper, spokeswoman for the National Archives, said officials
there would not comment on pending litigation. As keeper of the
records, the National Archives was named as a defendant.

Under Bush's order, a former president or a sitting president -- or in
some cases, the family of a deceased or disabled president -- could
block the release of records requested by individuals and force them
to go to court to challenge the decisions.

Passed in the wake of a controversy over the papers and tapes of
former president Richard M. Nixon, the Presidential Records Act of
1978 declared that the records of presidents and vice presidents are
public property. The law called for the archivist of the United States
to make them available to the public "as rapidly and completely as
possible."

The act envisioned the release of most sensitive records, such as
those involving confidential communications between presidents and
their advisers, 12 years after a president left office. There were
exceptions for national security matters.

Until Bush's order was signed Nov. 1, a former president could claim
privilege for particular documents, but the archivist could overrule
him, and the former president would have to go to court to sustain his
claim. Bush's order shifts the legal burden, requiring individuals to
show a "demonstrated, specific need" for particular records to
overcome constitutionally raised privileges by former and incumbent
presidents.

Scott L. Nelson, a lawyer for the Public Citizen Litigation Group,
said the order could prevent or delay the release of important
materials, including 68,000 pages of records of former president
Ronald Reagan that historians hoped to obtain earlier this year. He
said records could remain off limits even if the privileges raised
were unfounded.

The lawsuit, assigned to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, also seeks a
court order requiring the release of the Reagan-era papers.

Nelson said the executive order also gave former vice presidents
additional control over their records and noted that Bush's father,
former president George Bush, could be the first to benefit because
scholars want his papers from the Reagan administration, when he was
vice president.