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Nature of Suit Code: 895
Nature of Suit: Freedom of Information Act of 1974
Cause of Action: 

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United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

Argued September 22, 1995 Decided November 14, 1995

No. 94-5265

D. MARK KATZ,

APPELLANT

v.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION,

APPELLEE

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the District of Columbia

(92cv01024)

Lucinda A. Sikes argued the cause for appellant. With her on the briefs was Michael E. Tankersley.

Douglas N. Letter, Litigation Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, argued the cause for appellee.

With him on the brief were Frank W. Hunger, Assistant Attorney General, Eric H. Holder, Jr.,

United States Attorney, Leonard Schaitman, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, and Amy E.

Krupsky, Attorney, National Archives and Records Administration.

Before: EDWARDS, Chief Judge, WALD and RANDOLPH, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge RANDOLPH.

RANDOLPH, Circuit Judge: D. Mark Katz appeals from the district court's decision, on

summary judgment, rejecting his claim that the National Archives and Records Administration

violated the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, by failing to honor hisrequest for "any and

all photographs relevant to the autopsy" of President John F. Kennedy. Because these items were

not agency records under the control of the Archives, we affirm.

I 

After President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, his body was flown to

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Washington, D.C., and taken to the Bethesda Naval Hospital where federal doctors performed an

autopsy. REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F.

KENNEDY 59-60 (1964). Navy personnel took photographs and x-rays of the body. Captain J.H.

Stover, Commanding Officer ofthe U.S. Naval Medical School, delivered the exposed photographic

film to Roy Kellerman, a Secret Service agent. At the same time, Commander John H. Ebersole,

Acting Chief of Radiology, turned over the x-ray film to Kellerman. Vice Admiral George Burkley,

the President's personal physician, "accepted and approved" these actions.

Early the next morning, November 23, 1963, Kellerman delivered the exposed photographic

and x-ray film to Secret Service agent Robert Bouck at the Executive Office Building. During the

next few weeks, Secret Service personnel had the photographic film developed at the U.S. Navy

Photographic Laboratory and returned the film and the prints to the Secret Service office in the

Executive Office Building. For the next 17 months, the autopsy photographs and x-rays were stored

in a safe in the Secret Service office in the Executive Office Building.

On April 22, 1965, Senator Robert F. Kennedy wrote to White House physician Admiral

Burkley "authoriz[ing]" him to release to Senator Kennedy's custody "all of the material of President

Kennedy, of which you have personal knowledge, and now being held by the Secret Service."

Senator Kennedy requested that AdmiralBurkley personally accompany the material and turn it over

to Evelyn Lincoln at the National Archives. Senator Kennedy further stated that Mrs. Lincoln was

not authorized to release the material to anyone without his written permission. At that time, Mrs.

Lincoln, who had been President Kennedy's secretary, occupied a courtesy office in the National

Archives building, but was not a government employee. Investigation of the Assassination of

President John F. Kennedy, Appendix to Hearings Before the House Select Comm. on

Assassinations, 95th Cong., 2d Sess., Vol. VII, at 25-26 (1979) ("House Select Comm. Appendix").

The materials, including the photographs and the x-rays, paraffin blocks of tissue samples, blood

smears taken during various periods of President Kennedy's life, and other items, were transferred

to Mrs. Lincoln in a locked footlocker on April 26, 1965. No key accompanied the footlocker and

the contents were not divulged to officials of the Archives.

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*The version of the Presidential Libraries Act then in effect required that documents acquired

under the Act be held "subject to such restrictions respecting their availability and use as may be

specified in writing by the donors or depositors, ... and such restrictions shall be respected for so

long a period as shall have been specified...." 44 U.S.C. § 397(f)(3) (1964). These provisions are

now codified as amended at 44 U.S.C. §§ 2111(1), 2112(c). 

In November 1965, Congress passed a statute providing for the acquisition of "allright, title,

and interest" in evidence pertaining to the assassination. Pub. L. No. 89-318, 79 Stat. 1185 (1965).

The statute gave the Attorney General one year to determine which items to acquire and provided

a cause of action for owners of the items to obtain just compensation.

In September 1966, in response to a letter fromDr.John Nichols, AdmiralBurkley stated that

allmedicalrecords, other than those supplied to the Warren Commission, were "being held under the

same conditions as the President's private papers."

In October 1966, Attorney General Ramsey Clark asked Senator Robert F. Kennedy about

the government's obtaining the autopsyphotographs and x-rays pursuant to the 1965 statute. Senator

Kennedy "was not sympathetic to the Government's need to acquire the autopsy material." House

Select Comm. Appendix at 28. After "heated negotiations," the Kennedy family agreed to donate the

autopsy photographs and x-raysto the United States pursuant to the Presidential Libraries Act (then

codified at 44 U.S.C. § 397(e)(1) (1964)).* House Select Comm. Appendix at 28. The deed's

restrictions were "to continue in effect during the lives of the late President's widow, daughter, son,

parents, brothers, and sisters, or any of them." Only federal government officials investigating the

death of President Kennedy or "recognized expert[s] in the field of pathology or related areas of

science or technology, for serious purposes relevant to the investigation" of the death of President

Kennedy were to be permitted access to the autopsy photographs and x-rays. Burke Marshallthe

Kennedy family representativewas given authority to decide whether an expert seeking access to

the materials had the requisite qualifications and purpose. The photographs and x-rays were

transferred to officials at the National Archives on October 31, 1966.

In 1992, Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection

Act ("JFK Act"), in order to collect all government assassination records in the Archives and to

provide for their timely public disclosure. Pub. L. No. 102-526, § 2(b), 106 Stat. 3443 (1992)

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(codified at 44 U.S.C. § 2107 note (Supp. IV 1992)). In defining what constituted an "assassination

record" subject to disclosure, the JFK Act specifically excluded "autopsy records donated by the

Kennedy family to the National Archives pursuant to a deed of gift regulating access to those

records." Pub. L. No. 102-526, § 3(2), 106 Stat. 3443, 3444 (1992).

II

Under FOIA, an agency must make "agency records" available to the public unless they fall

within one of the statutory exemptions. 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(3), (a)(4)(B). Are the autopsy

photographs and x-rays Katz requested "agency records"? To be so considered, an agency of the

government must have created or obtained the records; and an agency must "be in control of the

requested materials at the time the FOIA request is made." U.S. Dep't of Justice v. Tax Analysts,

492 U.S. 136, 145 (1989). When Katz submitted his FOIA request, the Archives was not in control

of the autopsy x-rays and photographs, or so it argues; the Kennedy family, pursuant to the deed

conveying these materials to the federal government, controlled who could see them.

Katz answers that the deed is invalid. His argument is this. When the records were created

they were "agency records" under the Records Disposal Act, ch. 5, 57 Stat. 380-83 (1943) (codified

as amended at 44 U.S.C. §§ 3301-3314), because they were "made or received by an agency of the

United States Government under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public

business." 44 U.S.C. § 3301. The Navy created the records and the Secret Service received them

as part of the official investigation into the death of President Kennedy. The x-rays and photographs

never became the property of President Kennedy's estate because the government never alienated

these items or transferred its ownership rights in them in accordance with the rather complicated

provisions of the Records Disposal Act. Since the estate never owned the materials, the deed of gift

is not binding on the Archives.

We do not address most of Katz's argument because we disagree with his initial premise.

Indeed, we find that the photographs and x-rays were personal presidential materials when theywere

first created, and therefore at no time were they ever agency records. As a result, we need not

consider the validity of the deed of gift.

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We determined in Nixon v. United States, 978 F.2d 1269 (D.C. Cir. 1992), that before the

Presidential Records Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-591, 92 Stat. 2528 (codified as amended at 44

U.S.C. §§ 2201-2207), each President had considered his presidential papers to be his property,

which he could freely alienate or even destroy. We did not there say exactly what constituted

"presidentialpapers," and until1978, there was no legal definition ofthe phrase. We therefore looked

to history, custom and usage, including practices of past Presidents and their families, the treatment

of presidential papers by other government officials, and the apparent affirmation of presidential

ownership by Congress. Nixon, 978 F.2d at 1277-84.

While the autopsyx-rays and photographsmaysatisfythe literaldefinitionof "agencyrecords"

under the Records Disposal Actthey were "made or received by an agency"the strong tradition

of presidential ownership of their personal papers, the nature of these x-rays and photographs, and

their treatment as the property of the estate of the late President demonstrate that the materials were

personal presidential papers and not agency records.

The x-rays and photographs are medicalrecords, which are usually considered private. See,

e.g., 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6) (exempting "medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would

constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" from disclosure under FOIA).

Everyone involved with the creation and handling of the materials treated them as though they were

the propertyofPresident Kennedy's estate, whichmembers ofthe Kennedyfamilyadministered. Mrs.

Kennedy was given a choice of where she wanted the autopsy to be performed. She chose the

Bethesda Naval Hospital because President Kennedy had served in the Navy. Admiral Burkley, the

President's personal physician, was present at the autopsy. He personally "accepted and approved"

the transfer of the photographic and x-ray film from the Navy doctors to the Secret Service agents.

The film was taken to and stored in the Secret Service office in the White House complex, not to

Secret Service headquarters or to FBI headquarters.

Out of concern for the Kennedy family's privacy, Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was

chairman of the Commission investigating the assassination, made sure that the x-rays and

photographs did not become a part of the record of the Warren Commission. He "instructed that the

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pictures be removed from the commission's file of documents and be made available only with the

consent of the Kennedys." G. EDWARD WHITE, EARL WARREN: A PUBLIC LIFE 199-202 (1982).

When Senator Kennedy "authorized" the transfer of the material to Mrs. Lincoln, neither Dr.

Burkley nor anyone in the Secret Service hesitated. Senator Kennedy's letter was dated Thursday,

April 22, 1965; the files were taken to Mrs. Lincoln the following Monday, April 26, 1965. Mrs.

Lincoln was not a government employee at the time. No one at the Archives had access to the x-rays

or photographs; no one there had a key to the footlocker; and until the contents were transferred

to the Archives under the deed, no one at the Archives even knew what was in the footlocker. In a

letter dated September 1, 1966, AdmiralBurkley stated that the x-rays and photographs were "being

held under the same conditions as the President's private papers."

The 1965 statute, and the actions of Attorney General Clark and the Archives in connection

with the statute provide further support for the conclusion that the materials were considered the

private property of President Kennedy's estate. The statute provided that the government could

acquire title to the material and gave the owners of the material an action for compensation.

Attorney General Clark proceeded under this statute, indicating the position of the Department of

Justice that the Kennedy estate had title to the property. Rather than arguing that the documents

belonged to the federal government or simply taking the documents under the 1965 statute, the

Attorney General accepted the Kennedy family's donation of the materials to the Archivessubject to

the terms of the deed.

Some of the materials acquired by the Navy doctors and the Secret Service during the

autopsy, including microscopic tissue slides and other tissue samples, were apparently removed by

Senator Kennedy between April 1965 and October 1966. House Select Comm. Appendix at 26-33.

These items appeared on the inventory of materials transferred to Mrs. Lincoln but were not later

transferred to the Archives under the deed. There is no indication that Attorney General Clark ever

sought to obtain these tissue samples, or that anyone ever challenged Senator Kennedy's right to

remove them.

In addition, the actions of the Archives since the photographs were deeded to the United

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Statessupport the validity of the deed. For almost thirty years, the Archives has consistently obeyed

the requirements of the deed. The Archives has granted access to federal government investigators,

including researchersfromthe 1978HouseSelectCommittee onAssassinations, the 1975Rockefeller

Commission, and a review panel appointed by Attorney General Ramsey Clark in 1968. But the

Archives has also denied private researchers access to the x-rays and photographs. Soon after the

deed was executed, the Archives denied a FOIA request from Dr. John Nichols. In Nichols' action

for injunctive relief, the Tenth Circuit agreed with the Archives that the 1966 deednot

FOIAgoverned and that Nichols did not have standing under FOIA to challenge the validity of the

deed. Nichols v. United States, 460 F.2d 671 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 966 (1972).

Congress itself implicitly recognized that the autopsy records were personal presidential

papers. It specifically excluded them from disclosure under the JFK Act. The Act defined the phrase

"assassination record" broadly to include any record related to the assassination "that was created or

made available for use by, obtained by, or otherwise came in the possession of ... any ... office of the

Federal Government." Pub. L. No. 102-526, § 3(2), 106 Stat. 3443, 3444 (1992). The only

exceptions to this definition are the records governed by the deed. Clearly these records are unique.

Congress assumed that the Kennedy estate owned the records, that the deed was valid, and that the

terms of the deed offered the best mechanism for providing access to the materials while honoring

the intentions of the Kennedy family. According to the Senate Report, the Committee "carefully

examined the deed of gift" and concluded that the terms of the deed would "rightfully balance the

needs for access by professionals with the privacy protection intended by the terms of the deed." S.

REP. NO. 328, 102d Cong., 2d Sess. 22 (1992).

Thus, all agencies and individuals involved in the creation and handling of the x-rays and

photographsthe Secret Service, Admiral Burkley, the Archives, Chief Justice Warren, Attorney

General Clark, and the Kennedy familytreated these items as though they were the personal

property of the Kennedy estate. This understanding and the actions taken consistent with it were

essentially ratified by Congress in the 1992 JFK Act. While the mere assumptions of parties might

not normally be dispositive, in the absence of any clear statutory, constitutional, or common law

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guidance and in light of the strong tradition of presidential ownership of personal papers, we believe

that the assumption here was warranted.

Because we hold that the autopsy x-rays and photographs were presidential papers and not

agency records, we affirm the district court's judgment that the documents are not subject to

disclosure under FOIA.

Affirmed.

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