March 19, 2002
National Security Archive Sues
to Stop Executive Order
Other Organizations Join Class Action Suit
By Brian
Krause
The National Security Archive
at Gelman Library has joined a class action lawsuit to stop an executive
order signed by President Bush that would allow former presidents to
withhold the release of their presidential papers indefinitely.
Created after a court battle
to make public former President Richard Nixon’s papers and tapes,
the Presidential Records Act of 1978 requires former presidents to release
even their most sensitive records no later than 12 years after they
leave office.
President Bush’s executive
order changes that, giving the White House and former presidents uncontrolled
discretion in deciding whether to deny the release of documents requested
by journalists and scholars. Records also could be withheld if a former
president claims executive privilege or if their release would threaten
national security.
Joined by the American Historical
Association, the Organization of American Historians, and other scholars,
the National Security Archive is challenging the order claiming it violates
the Presidential Records Act. They also are suing for the release of
68,000 pages of records of former President Ronald Reagan that the Bush
White House has withheld since January despite the requirements of the
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,” says 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.”
Founded in 1985 by a group
of journalists and scholars, the National Security Archive is a private
institute that collects and makes available US documents obtained through
the Freedom of Information Act. Located on the seventh floor of GW’s
Gelman Library, the Archive is the world’s largest non-governmental
library of declassified documents.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
