Appeals court weighs Trump bid to scrap presidential records law
The Trump administration says the 1978 Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. A federal judge blocked it in May, and a Washington appeals court hears arguments on Friday.
Archive image · Photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is set to hear arguments at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Friday over the Presidential Records Act. The 1978 law makes White House records public property. On April 1, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel declared the law unconstitutional and advised President Donald Trump that he "need not further comply" with it. The administration argues that papers created in the White House belong to the president. NPR reported that every president since 1978 had complied with the law until this year.
Several groups sued, including the watchdogs CREW and American Oversight and the American Historical Association. On May 20, Senior U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a preliminary injunction. It requires the White House Office, the National Security Council, the U.S. DOGE Service and presidential advisers, among others, to preserve all records. They may use disappearing messages for official business only if a copy goes to an official account. The administration appealed.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis called the law "unconstitutional and a clear violation of the separation of powers." CREW chief counsel Nikhel Sus said that if the courts accepted that view, "it would mean the people really have no right of access to the president's papers." Conservative lawyer Michael Edney called parts of the act "constitutionally problematic" and said the administration wants the case to reach the Supreme Court.