United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Coleen Kollar-Kotelly has overturned a provision of an Executive Order executed by George W. Bush concering the Presidential Records Act (PRA). Under the Act, former presidents have thirty days to review material the Archivist of the United States would like to release and assert any privileges or rights that would foreclose disclosure. (There is a twelve year waiting period from the time a president leaves office before the PRA kicks in). President Bush issued an Executive Order that basically allows a former president to stall disclosure of his or her information in perpetuity after he was informed that the Archives was going to release certain records of former President Reagan. Thus, plaintiff's sued that this was Executive Order was a violation of the Presidential Records Act.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly agreed and order this provision of the Executive Order unconstitutional. My guess is that we'll see an appeal of this decision well before we see any records of former President Reagan under the PRA.
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