see the case text in judicial watch vs clinton
Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Nat'l Archives & Records Admin., 845 F. Supp. 2d 288 | Casetext Search + Citator
Tidbits"
The PRA distinguishes Presidential records from “personal records,” defining personal records as “all documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, of a purely private or nonpublic character which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.” Id. § 2201(3). The PRA provides that “diaries, journals or other personal notes serving as the functional equivalent of a diary or journal which are not prepared or utilized for, or circulated or communicated in the course of, transacting Governmental business” should be treated as personal records. Id. § 2201(3)(A). The PRA requires that all materials produced or received by the President, “to the extent practicable, be categorized as Presidential records or personal records upon their creation or receipt and be filed separately.” Id. § 2203(b).
The categorization of the records during the Presidency controls what happens next: at the conclusion of the President's term, the Archivist is directed to “assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President.” Id. § 2203(f)(1). The Archivist is required to “make such records available to the public as rapidly and completely as possible consistent with the provisions of [the PRA].” Id. The statute assigns the Archivist no role with respect to personal records once the Presidency concludes.
As another court in this district has observed, “[t]he PRA incorporates an assumption made by Congress (in 1978) that subsequent Presidents and Vice Presidents would comply with the Act in good faith, and therefore Congress limited the scope of judicial review and provided little oversight authority for the President and Vice President's document preservation decisions.” CREW v. Cheney, 593 F.Supp.2d 194, 198 (D.D.C.2009).
Plaintiff insists that it is not challenging President Clinton's classification of the audiotapes as personal, but rather defendant's “erroneous decision the audiotapes are not presidential records.” Pl.'s Opp. at 11–12. This is at odds with paragraph 16 of the complaint, which specifically alleges that the President retained the tapes and did not transmit them to the Archivist as part of his Presidential records at the conclusion of his presidency—in other words, that it was his decision.
So if Trump took the morning SNEE, that might be considered Presidential, even if he wanted it personally but the problem is, Congress gave little oversight to this process, trusting to President's to largely decide what is personal, so NARA is not really empowered to tell him otherwise.