Gordon Belt – Public Access to Presidential Records

Public access to presidential records

Historical perspective, recent controversies

Author: Gordon T. Belt

First Amendment Center library manager
Date: 02.20.09
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/analysis.aspx?id=21242

Note: Endnotes will be found at the bottom of this article.

Just a day after his inauguration, on Jan. 21, 2009, President Barack Obama signed an
executive order revoking the George W. Bush administration’s Executive Order 13222 — an
order that many historians and open-government advocates argued severely limited access to
the records of former presidents.1

President Obama’s new executive order is just the latest in a long history of laws and
regulations affecting presidential libraries and presidential records. Drawing on the work of
other archivists, presidential-records scholars, and journalists, this article provides a brief
historical overview of our nation’s presidential libraries and the laws affecting access to
presidential records. This article also looks at some more recent access controversies
involving presidential records.

Brief history of presidential records

Our nation’s first president, George Washington, took great pains to preserve his place in
history. While still a general in the Continental Army, Washington wrote a letter to the
president of the Continental Congress on April 4, 1781, to express his frustration that so many
of his “valuable documents which may be of equal public utility and private satisfaction” were
in such disarray. He suggested hiring a team of writers led by an officer named Richard
Varick, who would work under Washington’s direct supervision, “to preserve from injury and
loss such valuable papers.” Washington gave Varick detailed instructions for organizing his
personal papers and transcribing his correspondence. Washington’s military orders and
instructions were to be organized meticulously and his letters transcribed in a “clear and
intelligent manner, that there may be no difficulty in the references.” Once the material was
transcribed, Varick returned the original documents to Washington, but Washington would
insist that both the transcripts and original documents belonged to the people, “as species of
Public property, sacred in my hands.”2

After he became president, Washington showed frustration with the lack of organization and
recordkeeping in the new government. In an April 3, 1797, letter to James McHenry,
Washington suggested constructing a separate building on his estate at Mount Vernon “for
the accommodation and security of my military, civil, and private papers which are
voluminous, and may be interesting.” However, that building was never built and Washington
simply packed up his papers and took them with him when he left office, setting a precedent
for future presidents.3

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In fact, until relatively recently the papers and correspondence generated by presidents while
in office were not considered public records. Because of concerns over confidentiality,
separation of powers and partisanship, presidential papers were considered personal
property and that status remained unchallenged for nearly 200 years.4 Ulysses S. Grant lost
many of his papers. Most of Zachary Taylor’s were burned when Union troops occupied his
son’s home in Louisiana in 1862 during the Civil War. On the day before his death in 1886,
Chester A. Arthur set three garbage cans full of documents on fire.5 After Warren Harding’s
death in 1923 the first lady, Florence Harding, burned nearly half of his personal papers.6

By the beginning of the 20th century, however, several families of former presidents began
donating their papers to the Library of Congress, state historical societies or universities,
often with restricted conditions on access. By the late 1930s, the Library of Congress had
acquired the papers of 22 presidents.7 Yet despite several government attempts to preserve
presidential papers, most disappeared, either given away as souvenirs, destroyed, lost in
family attics, or sold to autograph collectors.8

On Dec. 10, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set in motion what would eventually
become the precedent for all future presidents by announcing plans to donate his papers,
correspondence, historical manuscripts, books and memorabilia to the U.S. government,
along with his estate at Hyde Park, N.Y., on which he would build a “Presidential Library.” In
April 1939, Congress accepted Roosevelt’s gift, and the National Archives — founded about
four years earlier — was placed in charge of running the new library. The Franklin D.
Roosevelt Library was dedicated on June 30, 1941, establishing the first presidential library
along with the idea that presidential records should belong to the government and made
available to the public.9

Roosevelt’s successor, Harry Truman, also saw the benefit of a library to house his
presidential papers. In 1950, Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ernest M. Tipton and several
other friends of President Truman filed an application of incorporation for the establishment
of the Harry S. Truman Library in Missouri to house Truman’s writings, papers, relics and
memorabilia.10 Truman also urged Congress to establish a system of privately built and
federally maintained presidential libraries. His efforts culminated in 1955 with the passage of
the Presidential Libraries Act, which codified the procedures that Roosevelt had
established for his own presidential library and encouraged other presidents to donate their
papers to the government. Although the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955 did improve public
access to presidential papers, these records were still considered a gift of private property,
and the law allowed for limits to access to documents for a certain period of time, or
indefinitely, depending on the nature of the content.11

Under this and subsequent acts, more presidential libraries were established. It was not until
1974 when the Watergate scandal unfolded during President Richard M. Nixon’s
administration that the law governing access to presidential records changed. On Sept. 7,
1974, nearly a month after he resigned the presidency, Nixon signed an agreement with the
General Services Administration that designated his transfer of presidential records as a
deposit and not a gift, allowed Nixon to restrict access to those records, and gave him the
right to withdraw all materials after three years, except his Oval Office tape recordings.12 After
the press and the public became aware of this agreement, members of Congress acted quickly
to prevent any further action on Nixon's part to conceal his presidential records. On Dec. 19,
1974, Congress overturned Nixon’s agreement with the GSA and passed the Presidential

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Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, which ultimately placed Nixon’s records in
federal custody and stipulated that the National Archives must segregate and return to the
estate of the former president materials identified as purely "personal-private" or "personal-
political" and unrelated to the president's constitutional and statutory duties. Though this law
only applied to Nixon’s records, it established for the first time that the federal government
owned presidential records.13

The Watergate scandal and cover-up left an indelible mark on the history of presidential
records. In an effort to prevent any future concealment of presidential records, Congress
passed the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which permanently changed the legal
ownership of presidential papers from private to public. Beginning with President Ronald
Reagan’s administration, and continuing through every presidential administration
thereafter, the act required the archivist of the United States to assume custody of the
president’s public records after he leaves office.14

Under this new law there were six restrictions that presidents could assert over their records.
Among them, the act established a 12-year moratorium on access to presidential records that
involved classified national-security information, personal privacy, trade secrets or
confidential commercial or financial information.15 The act also distinguished between the
president’s public and private records. Documents such as diaries, journals, personal notes
and any materials relating exclusively to private political associations are deemed “personal
records” and “do not relate or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional,
statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.”16

Executive orders, executive privilege

The records generated by President Ronald Reagan were the first to be subject to provisions
of the Presidential Records Act. On Jan. 18, 1989, just two days before leaving office, Reagan
issued Executive Order 12667. Under this order, he and his predecessors were allowed 30
days’ notice when records were about to be released by the National Archives and Records
Administration. The order also gave presidents the right to assert an executive privilege claim
in court “if NARA's disclosure of Presidential records might impair the national security
(including the conduct of foreign relations), law enforcement, or the deliberative processes of
the Executive branch.”17

In 2001 President George W. Bush issued another executive order that overturned Reagan’s
executive order and established a whole new set of restrictions on the release of presidential
records. In February 2001, shortly after Bush took office, the National Archives notified both
President Bush and former President Reagan that it intended to release Reagan’s records
because the 12-year restriction on the release of certain materials as outlined in the
Presidential Records Act was about to expire. In response, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
requested a 90-day extension, then another, which was soon followed by an indefinite
extension to consider the release of the Reagan records.18 On Nov. 1, 2001, President Bush
signed Executive Order 13233, "Further Implementation of the Presidential Records Act,"
which set a 90-day review period on the release of records for the former president and an
unspecified review period for the incumbent president; required that the release of
information must be approved by both the current and previous president even if privilege is
not claimed; and said anyone who challenges the president’s executive privilege must show a
“demonstrated, specific need” for the records, among other requirements.19

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In December 2001 a group of historians and open-government advocates sued in court to

overturn Bush’s executive order. They argued that Executive Order 13233 violated the
Presidential Records Act, and asked for a declaratory judgment preventing the archivist of the
United States from implementing the order. The suit also requested the release of 68,000
pages of Reagan’s files that were withheld at the direction of the Bush administration despite
the direct requirements of the Presidential Records Act.20 The district court dismissed this
case in March 2004, finding no controversy because no executive privilege was claimed. The
plaintiffs asked the court to reinstate the case, which it agreed to do in May 2004, but in
September 2005, the court upheld the assertion of executive privilege by the incumbent
president as permissible under existing case law.21

While litigation, legislation and advocacy against Bush’s executive order continued, President
Obama issued his Executive Order 13489 revoking Bush’s Executive Order 13233.22
Obama’s new executive order restored much of the language that existed in Reagan’s previous
order, giving only the incumbent president and living former presidents the right to claim
executive privilege. Under the previous Bush order, heirs or designees of deceased presidents
could assert claims of executive privilege. The Obama order also removed a significant
loophole in the Bush executive order that gave former vice presidents the right of executive
privilege. Obama’s order made it clear that vice presidential records are included under the
definition of “presidential records.”23

Recent access controversies

Controversy surrounding access to presidential records is not new. Cases where scholars,
authors, reporters and average citizens were denied access to presidential records can be
traced as far back as 1968, when Professor Francis L. Lowenheim of Rice University accused
officials at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library of deliberately withholding
documents related to FDR’s foreign-policy decisions during World War II.24 Historians and
biographers have also accused staff at the John F. Kennedy Library of censoring documents
and blocking access to Kennedy’s papers in an effort to protect his privacy and public image.25
Many more access controversies surrounded the Richard Nixon administration during and
after the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.26 Additional information on this subject can be
found in sources cited in the selected bibliography and endnotes sections of this article.
Following is a brief selection and overview of more current cases of restricted access to
presidential records gathered from various media and online sources.

Dick Cheney’s energy task force

On Jan. 29, 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order creating what was
officially known as the National Energy Policy Development Group, but commonly referred to
in the news as the “Cheney energy task force.” The task force, comprising several Cabinet
members and White House aides, met with approximately 300 groups and individuals in an
effort to draft a national energy policy.27 The task force issued a report on May 16, 2001, with
several recommendations, but environmental groups, consumer advocates, and congressional
Democrats claimed that the task force had shut them out of discussions and argued that
advice from corporate energy executives and lobbyists was given preferential consideration.28

In June 2001 the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, requested
information about the people involved in the task force and the “nature, purpose and
attendees in connection with the meetings,” eventually suing in federal court to force a release

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of documents related to the task force.29 Cheney refused to release that information, claiming
executive privilege, and the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch also sued.30

On Aug. 2, 2002, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled that the Bush administration
had 30 days to turn over documents and written responses to questions about the task force
from the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, but Cheney’s attorneys appealed, arguing in court
that the release of those documents would improperly inhibit the decision-making abilities of
the executive branch. On Oct. 17, 2002, Sullivan again ordered the release of task-force
documents, and again the Bush administration appealed the decision.31 The case eventually
went before U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, who ruled in December 2002 that the GAO
had no legal standing to sue Cheney.32 On June 24, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled
in Cheney’s favor on the case involving the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, stating in a 7-2
majority that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had not given due
weight to the executive branch’s need to be free of “vexatious litigation.”33

Hillary Clinton’s records at Clinton Library

As Hillary Clinton launched her presidential campaign in 2007, the public-policy group
Judicial Watch sued the National Archives and Records Administration to force a release of
documents from the William J. Clinton Presidential Library related to the former first lady’s
time in the White House. Meeting notes, e-mails, phone logs, schedules and appointment
memos were among the documents Judicial Watch sought through a Freedom of Information
Act request. Although the Clinton Library had already released about 1 million pages of
domestic-policy memos and other documents, many of which dealt with the first lady’s work
in the early 1990s on a health-care task force, some information in those documents was
censored or redacted because it included confidential legal advice and personal information
about Hillary Clinton’s associates, including addresses, telephone numbers and Social
Security numbers.34

In a separate case from March 2008, archivists at the Clinton Library blocked the release of
material related to 140 pardons that President Clinton approved on his last day in office. The
documents were withheld on advice from the president’s attorneys, who cited confidentiality
clauses in the Presidential Records Act of 1978 that allow presidents to restrict access to such
documents for up to 12 years after the presidents leave office.35

Both issues became political fodder during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary when
Hillary Clinton cited her experience as first lady as one of her qualifications to be president.
Her Democratic primary challengers criticized her for restricting access to records from her
husband’s administration. With more than 250 FOIA requests pending and only 11 archivists
at the Clinton Library to process them, NARA officials said they could not predict whether
any of the material would be released before the election, but by March 19, 2008, the Clinton
Library did release 11,000 pages of records, including the details from the first lady’s
meetings, trips, speaking engagements and social activities — but a third of those records
were redacted to protect the privacy of Clinton's associates.36

George W. Bush Presidential Library

Not without controversy, Southern Methodist University in Dallas was chosen as the future
home for the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Some SMU faculty, scholars and religious
leaders protested inclusion of a proposed public policy institute as part of the library on
campus, asserting that such an institute would taint the university’s academic integrity.37 But

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in February 2008 university trustees unanimously approved a resolution allowing the library
to be built. Then United Methodist Church approval was required because SMU is owned by
the South Central Jurisdiction of the church. A small group of Methodist clergy signed a
petition opposing the new library and public policy center, but in July 2008 the United
Methodist Church dismissed the petition and approved the project.38

Another controversy involved a 2008 Times of London report that Houston businessman and
Bush campaign fund-raiser Stephen Payne was caught on tape offering access to top
administration officials in exchange for six-figure donations to President Bush's library
foundation. The Bush administration promptly distanced itself from Payne, whose name had
also surfaced in 2006 in connection with White House visitor logs (see below). Press
Secretary Dana Perino called Payne’s actions “inappropriate” and said, “No one is allowed to
try to say that there would be official action done under this administration in connection to
any contribution that they may or may not make to the library.”39

Missing Bush White House e-mails

As Congress and federal prosecutors began investigations into the George W. Bush White
House’s dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys and the administration’s leaking of Valerie Plame’s
CIA identity, reports began to surface in the news that e-mails relevant to both investigations
were not being made available to investigators.40 An April 12, 2007, report by the advocacy
group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington documented that more than 5
million e-mails generated by the White House between March 2003 and October 2005 were
lost or deleted. 41 Additionally, the report revealed that Bush administration officials were
using a private Internet domain, called gwb43.com and owned by the Republican National
Committee, to conduct official White House business in violation of Presidential Records Act
regulations governing communications between public officials.42

Further, in August 2008 the Associated Press obtained a nine-page internal White House
draft document outlining the administration’s e-mail problems to companies bidding on a
project to recover the missing electronic messages. The document stated that as many as 225
days of e-mail dating to 2003 were missing and outlined a process in which private
contractors would attempt to retrieve lost e-mail from 35,000 disaster-recovery backup
tapes.43

In September 2007, both CREW and the National Security Archive, an independent,
nongovernment research institute and library located at George Washington University, sued
the Executive Office of the President to force the Bush administration to recover the missing
e-mails.44 After several months of legal arguments and court appeals, U.S. Magistrate Judge
John Facciola issued an opinion on Jan. 15, 2009, that said the White House had failed in its
obligation to safeguard all electronic messages and ordered the administration to conduct a
search of all offices for the missing e-mails.45 In his opinion, Facciola said, “I have always
begun with the premise that, as just indicated, the emails that are said to be missing are the
very heart of this lawsuit and there is a profound societal interest in their preservation. They
are, after all, the most fundamental and useful contemporary records of the recent history of
the President’s office. If Napoleon was right when he said that he did not care who wrote
France’s laws if he could write its history, then the importance of preserving the e-mails
cannot be exaggerated.”46

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Secret Service White House visitor logs

In January 2006, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information request with the Secret
Service requesting a release of White House visitor logs that the group said would show how
often lobbyist Jack Abramoff met with President Bush and his staff.47 Judicial Watch wanted
to know about the extent of Abramoff’s ties to the White House after a federal probe into
improper influence and public corruption charges led to Abramoff's pleading guilty on Jan. 3,
2006, to three criminal felony counts of conspiracy, honest services mail fraud, and tax
evasion.48 In February 2006 Judicial Watch sued the Secret Service in U.S. District Court in
Washington, claiming that the Secret Service had failed to meet a Feb. 21 deadline for
releasing the White House visitor logs.49 In May 2006, Judge John Garrett Penn of the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Secret Service to release the records
unedited, which revealed that Abramoff went to the White House twice in five years, although
the White House has acknowledged three additional visits.50

Meanwhile, CREW filed two separate lawsuits in 2006 seeking access to Secret Service visitor
logs. CREW wanted to determine whether nine conservative religious leaders visited the
White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence, and also whether Texas
businessman and campaign fundraiser Stephen Payne had visited the White House. As noted
earlier, Payne allegedly tried to sell access to administration officials in exchange for
contributions to Bush's presidential library fund.51

Because Secret Service visitor records were subject to Freedom of Information Act requests,
the Bush administration ordered Secret Service visitor logs to be turned over to the White
House, where they would be treated as presidential records outside the scope of the public-
records law. The White House argued that revealing the Secret Service logs would impede the
president’s ability to perform his constitutional duties.52 However, on Jan. 9, 2009, U.S.
District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected that claim and declared that the government illegally
deleted Secret Service computer records. According to papers filed in the case, the deletions
went back as far as 2001, the year President Bush took office.53

Vice President Cheney’s records

In September 2008, a group of historians and nonprofit groups, concerned that Vice
President Dick Cheney might destroy some key national-security documents, joined Citizens
for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia asking that a federal judge declare that the vice president’s records
are covered by the Presidential Records Act. A spokesman for Cheney said, “The Office of the
Vice President currently follows the Presidential Records Act and will continue to follow the
requirements of the law, which includes turning over vice presidential records to the National
Archives at the end of the term.”54

In a Dec. 8, 2008, filing with the court, Cheney’s attorneys went further, saying, “The vice
president alone may determine what constitutes vice presidential records or personal records,
how his records will be created, maintained, managed and disposed, and are all actions that
are committed to his discretion by law.”55 On Jan. 19, 2009, U.S. District Judge Colleen
Kollar-Kotelly ruled in favor of the vice president, rejecting CREW’s claim and accepting a
pledge by a senior White House aide that Cheney’s documents and other materials would be
transferred as required to the National Archives.56

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NARA’s Office of Presidential Libraries

On July 21, 2008, the History News Network Web site published an article by an independent
researcher, Anthony Clark, who was writing a book on the politics and history of presidential
libraries. The article, “Why Is It So Hard to Get Documents from the National Archives about
the National Archives?,” chronicled Clark’s challenges gaining access to records created at the
National Archives and Records Administration’s Office of Presidential Libraries. Clark
discovered that since NARA’s Office of Presidential Libraries was created in 1964, no records
from that office had been transferred to the National Archives.57

In response to Clark’s multiple FOIA requests, NARA initially said all of those records were
“operational” and not suitable for transfer to the National Archives, but later agreed to release
more than 250 cubic feet of records deemed relevant to Clark’s work and to make those
records available to him on a monthly schedule.58 Clark, however, unsatisfied with NARA’s
timeliness and responsiveness to his requests, established a blog detailing his ongoing
challenges in accessing NARA's presidential records.59 (See http://www.anthony-clark.com/)

President Obama’s BlackBerry

During the 2008 presidential election campaign, there was a growing concern among public-
information advocates and national security officials that Democratic Party nominee Barack
Obama’s well-documented use of the BlackBerry electronic communication device would
become limited if he became president. In addition to concerns about hackers breaking into
Obama’s electronic communications or learning his location, national-security advisers,
historians and open-government groups argued over how much of Obama’s BlackBerry
communications would be preserved under the Presidential Records Act.60

After his election in November 2008, Obama, his staff and national-security advisers
negotiated a compromise, announced Jan. 22, 2009, that would allow Obama to continue
using his BlackBerry as president. The deal allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a
small group of friends using the device. Anyone given access to Obama's private e-mail
address received a briefing from the White House counsel’s office; forwarding messages from
the president to anyone else was prohibited. The Associated Press reported on Jan. 23 that
Obama’s BlackBerry communications would be subject to the Presidential Records Act,
although according to White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs exemptions would be made for
“strictly personal communications.”

"Gibbs did not say how that classification would be determined," AP reported, "but made
clear that the device could be used for both business and personal exchanges."61

With this agreement, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to use e-mail while in
office.62 Privacy concerns led Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, to discontinue using e-
mail just before his inauguration in 2001. In a Jan. 17, 2001, e-mail to 42 friends and
advisers, Bush said, “My lawyers tell me that all correspondence by e-mail is subject to open
record requests… Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to
embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace. This saddens me. I
have enjoyed conversing with each of you."63

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Endnotes:
1 “Obama orders rollback of government secrecy,” First Amendment Center Online, Jan. 22,
2009, at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21145; “Obama Overturns
Bush Order on Presidential Records,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 21, 2009, at
http://chronicle.com/news/article/5836/obama-overturns-bush-order-on-presidential-
records; “Executive Order – Presidential Records” at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ExecutiveOrderPresidentialRecords/; See
also: “EXECUTIVE ORDER 13233 - FURTHER IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT,” at http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2001/11/eo-pra.html;
American Historical Association v. NARA 402 F.Supp.2d 171 (D.D.C. 2005), at
http://fas.org/sgp/jud/aha.pdf.

2 Dan Higginbotham, George Washington Reconsidered, Charlottesville: University Press of

Virginia (2001), 279-280; Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington, New York:
Alfred A. Knopf (2004), 151.

3 Richard J. Cox, “America’s pyramids: Presidents and their libraries,” Government

Information Quarterly 19 (2002), 47-48.

4 Geoffrey C. Ward, “Future historians will curse as well as praise me,” Smithsonian, 20:9
(Dec. 1989), pp. 58 (11); Nancy Kegan Smith and Gary M. Stern, “A Historical Review of
Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” Public Historian, 28:3 (summer 2006), 81.

5 Cynthia M. Koch and Lynn A. Bassanese, “Roosevelt and His Library,” Prologue, 33:2
(summer 2001) at http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2001/summer/roosevelt-
and-his-library-1.html.

6 Cox, “America’s pyramids,” 47.

7 Ibid.

8 Koch and Bassanese, “Roosevelt and His Library,” 33:2 (summer 2001).

9 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 81-
82.

10 “Group Seeks Library for Truman Papers,” Washington Post, July 12, 1950; “Friends Begin
a Move for a Truman Library,” New York Times, July 12, 1950; “Truman to Group Papers,”
New York Times, Nov. 3, 1950.

11 David Glenn, “When History Becomes Legacy,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 9,
2007; U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, “Presidential Libraries Act of
1955,” at http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/laws/1955-act.html; U.S. National
Archives and Records Administration, “Presidential Library History: A Brief History,” at
http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/about/history.html.

12 Cox, “America’s pyramids,” 51.

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13 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 88;
Cox, “America’s pyramids,” 51; “Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act
(PRMPA) of 1974,” National Archives and Records Administration, at
http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/laws/1974-act.html.

14 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 96-
97; “Presidential Library History: A Brief History,” at http://www.archives.gov/presidential-
libraries/about/history.html.

15 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 98;
Hugh Davis Graham, “Presidency: The Reagan Papers Runaround,” History News Network,
Nov. 7, 2001, at http://hnn.us/articles/386.html.

16 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 97;
"Statement by Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States to the Subcommittee on
Information Policy, Census, and National Archives of the Committee on Government
Oversight and Reform House of Representatives Congress of the United States On the
Implementation and Effectiveness of the Presidential Records Act of 1978," March 1, 2007, at
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070309102342-88832.pdf.

17 “Basic Laws and Authorities: Executive Order 12667 – Presidential Records,” National
Archives and Records Administration, at
http://www.archives.gov/about/laws/appendix/12667.html.

18 American Historical Association v. NARA 402 F.Supp.2d 171 (D.D.C. 2005), at

http://fas.org/sgp/jud/aha.pdf.

19 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 105;
David Banisar, “Government Secrecy: Decisions Without Democracy,” People for the
American Way Foundation, at http://www.openthegovernment.org/govtsecrecy.pdf.

20 American Historical Association v. NARA 402 F.Supp.2d 171 (D.D.C. 2005), at

http://fas.org/sgp/jud/aha.pdf; See also: “Historians, Public Interest Groups Sue To Stop
Bush Order,” National Security Archive, Nov. 28, 2001, at
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010028/.

21 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 106-
107.

22 “Executive Order – Presidential Records” at

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ExecutiveOrderPresidentialRecords/;
“President Obama Revokes Bush Presidential Records Executive Order,” National Coalition
for History, Jan. 21, 2009 at http://historycoalition.org/2009/01/21/president-obama-
revokes-bush-presidential-records-executive-order/.

23 “President Obama Revokes Bush Presidential Records Executive Order (updated Jan. 22),”
National Coalition for History, at http://historycoalition.org/2009/01/21/president-obama-
revokes-bush-presidential-records-executive-order/.

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24 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 86.

25 Cox, “America’s pyramids,” 73.

26 Smith and Stern, “A Historical Review of Access to Records in Presidential Libraries,” 79-
116.

27 “Energy Task Force Meetings Participants,” washingtonpost.com, at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/politics/documents/cheney_energy_task_force.html.

28 Charles Lane, “High Court Backs Vice President; Energy Documents Shielded for Now,”
Washington Post, June 25, 2004.

29 Mike Allen, “Cheney Spurns GAO Request; Agency Seeks Information on Energy Task
Force’s Contacts,” Washington Post, June 19, 2001.

30 Neely Tucker, “White House Told to Turn Over More Data on Energy Panel,” Washington
Post, Aug. 3, 2002; Neely Tucker, “Cheney-GAO Showdown Goes to Corut,” Washington
Post, Sept. 28, 2002; Neely Tucker, “Judge Orders White House Papers’ Release,”
Washington Post, Oct. 18, 2002.

31 Ibid.

32 Neely Tucker, “Suit Versus Cheney Is Dismissed; Judge Gives Administration Broad
Victory on Oversight,” Washington Post, Dec. 10, 2002.

33 Charles Lane, “High Court Backs Vice President; Energy Documents Shielded for Now,”
Washington Post, June 25, 2004.

34 “Papers from Clinton years not likely out before election,” Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2007;
Michael Isikoff, “Papers? I Don’t See Any Papers,” Newsweek, Oct. 29, 2007.

35 Peter Eisler, “Archivists block release of Clinton papers,” USA Today, March 7, 2008.

36 Peter Nicholas, “Clinton records locked up,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 14, 2007; Mike
Dorning, “Clinton library a closed book,” Chicago Tribune, Nov. 12, 2007; Daniel Nasaw,
“11,000 pages detailing Hillary Clinton’s White House years set for release,” Guardian (U.K.),
March 18, 2008.

37 Paul Meyer, “SMU seals library deal University, foundation confirm Bush site after lengthy
pursuit,” Dallas Morning News, Feb. 23, 2008; Holly K. Hacker, “Professors remain wary of
policy institute; Faculty members are relieved that center won't be part of school,” Dallas
Morning News, Feb. 26, 2008.

38 Holly K. Hacker, “Methodist faction fighting Bush library at SMU Clergy unveil petition as
president leans 'heavily' toward university as site,” Dallas Morning News, Jan. 19, 2007;
Adam B. Ellick, “Texas: Approval for Bush Library,” New York Times, July 18, 2008.

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Gordon Belt – Public Access to Presidential Records

39 Daniel Foggo and Steven Swinford, “Stephen Payne: a hotshot lobbyist who can get you
into White House,” Times Online, July 13, 2008, at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4322719.ece; Sheryl
Gay Stolberg and Adam Ellick, “Fund-Raiser Faces Inquiry Over Offer Of Access, New York
Times, July 17, 2008.

40 CREW ASKS FOR HOUSE INVESTIGATION INTO WHITE HOUSE VIOLATIONS OF

PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington,
March 15, 2007, at http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/25822; Tom Hamburger, “Key
Bush aides’ e-mail may be lost,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 2007, at
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/12/nation/na-emails12.

41 WITHOUT A TRACE: The Story Behind the Missing White House E-mails and the
Violations of the Presidential Records Act, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington, April 12, 2007, at
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20070905/041207WithoutATraceFullReport.pdf.

42 Ibid.; See also: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Advisers' E-Mail Accounts May Have Mixed Politics
and Business, White House Says,” New York Times, April 12, 2007; Alexis Simendinger,
“Whose E-Mail Is It?,” National Journal, March 24, 2007.

43 “White House missing as many as 225 days of e-mail,” Associated Press, Aug. 23, 2008, at
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=20448.

44 CREW SUES WHITE HOUSE AND NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS

ADMINISTRATION OVER LOST EMAILS, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington, Sept. 25, 2007, at http://citizensforethics.org/node/30199; “Archive Sues to
Recover 5 Million Missing White House E-mails,” National Security Archive, Sept. 5, 2007, at
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20070905/index.htm.

45 “White House ordered to preserve e-mails,” Associated Press, Jan. 15, 2009, at
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21117.

46 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Exec. Office of the President, CA
Nos. 07-1701, 07-1577, (D.D.C. Jan. 15, 2009), at https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-
bin/show_public_doc?2007cv1707-105.

47 “White House logs of Abramoff visits to be released,” Associated Press, May 9, 2006, at
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=16873.

48 “Group sues to get White House visitor logs,” Associated Press, March 1, 2006, at
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=16567.

49 Ibid.

50 “White House logs of Abramoff visits to be released,” Associated Press, May 9, 2006, at
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=16873.

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Gordon Belt – Public Access to Presidential Records

51 Federal judge rules against White House on visitor logs,” Associated Press, Jan. 12, 2009,
at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21103.

52 “Judge rules White House visitor logs are public documents,” Associated Press, Dec. 18,
2007, at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19464.

53 “Federal judge rules against White House on visitor logs,” Associated Press, Jan. 12, 2009,
at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21103.

54 Christopher Lee, “Lawsuit to Ask That Cheney’s Papers Be Made Public,” Washington
Post, Sept. 8, 2008, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/09/07/AR2008090702260.html?hpid=moreheadlines.

55 “Cheney says he gets to decide which records to archive,” Associated Press, Dec. 18, 2008,
at http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/36138.

56 R. Jeffrey Smith, “Ruling on Records Delivers a Win to Cheney,” Washington Post, Jan.
20, 2009, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2009/01/19/AR2009011903042.html?hpid=topnews; “Federal judge:
Cheney has broad discretion over records,” Associated Press, Jan. 20, 2009, at
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21131.

57 Anthony Clark, "Why Is It So Hard to Get Documents from the National Archives About
the National Archives?" History News Network, July 21, 2008, at
http://hnn.us/articles/52350.html.

58 Gary M. Stern, “NARA’s Response,” History News Network at

http://hnn.us/readcomment.php?id=125445&bheaders=1#125445; Kate Theimer, “NARA’s
Management of Presidential Library Records: Revelations and Results" (Pages 24-25),
Records Manager, November 2008, at
http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/recmgmt/resources/newsletters/TRM_200811.pdf.

59 See: http://www.anthony-clark.com/.

60 Stephanie Clifford, “For BlackBerry, Obama’s Devotion Is Priceless,” New York Times,
Jan. 8, 2009, at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/media/09blackberry.html?ref=politics;
Brad Stone, “The High Security Risk Attached to Obama’s Belt,” New York Times, Jan. 11,
2009, at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/technology/internet/12blackberry.html?ref=politics.

61 “News access issues concern reporters covering Obama,” Associated Press, Jan. 23, 2009,
at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21151.

62 Jeff Zeleny, “For a High-Tech President, a Hard-Fought E-Victory, New York Times, Jan.
22, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/us/politics/23berry.html?ref=politics;
Jimmy Orr, “Obama wins the BlackBerry war,” Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 22, 2009, at
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/01/22/obama-wins-the-blackberry-war/;
Christi Parsons and Jim Puzzanghera, “The BlackBerry accord of 2009,” Los Angeles Times,

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Gordon Belt – Public Access to Presidential Records

Jan. 23, 2009, at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obama-blackberry23-

2009jan23,0,3585072.story.

63 Richard L. Berke, “The Last (E-Mail) Goodbye, From 'gwb' to His 42 Buddies,” New York
Times, March 17, 2001.

Selected bibliography

Cox, Richard J. “America’s Pyramids: Presidents and their libraries,” Government

Information Quarterly 19 (2002).

Freidel, Frank. “Roosevelt to Reagan: The Birth and Growth of Presidential Libraries,”
Prologue 21 (summer 1989).

Geselbracht, Raymond. “The Four Eras in the History of Presidential Papers,” Prologue 15
(spring 1983).

Glenn, David. “When History Becomes Legacy,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 9,
2007.

Hirshon, Arnold. “Recent Developments in the Accessibility of Presidential Papers and Other
Presidential Historical Materials,” Government Publications Review, vol. 6, no. 4 (1979).

Hufbauer, Benjamin. Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public
Memory, University Press of Kansas, 2006.

Lantzer, Jason S. “The Public History of Presidential Libraries: How the Presidency is
Presented to the People,” Journal of the Association for History and Computing, vol. 6, no. 1,
April 2003.

Smith, Nancy Kegan, and Stern, Gary M. “A Historical Review of Access to Records in
Presidential Libraries,” The Public Historian, vol. 28, no. 3 (summer 2006).

Span, Paula. “Monumental Ambition: Presidential libraries are history and hagiography,
archival mother lodes and gift shops pushing star-spangled dish towels,” The Washington
Post, Feb. 17, 2002.

Wolff, Cynthia J. “Necessary Monuments: The Making of the Presidential Library System,”
Government Publications Review 16 (1989).

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Gordon Belt – Public Access to Presidential Records

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