Opinion ID: 2682233
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: NARA's Maintenance of Presidential Records

Text: In passing the Presidential Records Act of 1978 (the PRA), Congress made presidential and vice-presidential records the property of the United States, ending the historic practice of presidents taking ownership of records created during their administrations. 44 U.S.C. § 2202; see Nixon v. United States, 978 F.2d 1269, 1277 n.19, 1284 (D.C. Cir. 1992). Under the PRA, Presidential records include: documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, created or received by the President, his immediate staff, or a unit or individual of the Executive Office of the President whose function is to advise and assist the President, in the course of conducting activities which relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President. 44 U.S.C. § 2201(2). The PRA entrusts these presidential records to NARA. Id. § 2203(f). Vice-presidential records are treated similarly. Id. § 2207. Former President Bush's records are housed at the NARAcontrolled George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas, and former Vice-President Cheney's at NARA's Washington, D.C. -4- COOK V. NAT'L ARCHIVES & RECORDS ADMIN. archives. Like the other historical records it maintains, NARA makes these records available to the public for research. Id. § 2203(f)(1); 36 C.F.R. § 1254.1(b). There are limits on access. Presidential and vice-presidential records are not publicly available during a period of up to five years while NARA processes and organizes records it receives. 44 U.S.C. § 2204(b)(2)(A)-(B). Before leaving office, a president or vicepresident may also designate a period of up to twelve years during which certain records will be unavailable to the public. Id. § 2204(a). During periods when the records are not yet available to the public, former presidents and vice-presidents, or their designated representatives, may access the archived records of their respective administrations by submitting special access requests. Id. § 2205(3). The incumbent president, the judiciary, and Congress may also request archived records of prior administrations, but only in connection with their official duties. Id. § 2205(2). At the Bush Library, once special access requests are received -- often by email and sometimes orally -- a paper folder is created reflecting the request. The requests are logged by date of receipt, and reveal the identity of the specific requestor (an authorized representative of former President George W. Bush) and the specific item or information sought. J.A. at 113-14 ¶ 16. -5- COOK V. NAT'L ARCHIVES & RECORDS ADMIN. NARA maintains that it treats the special access requests received from former officials or their representatives in a manner wholly consistent with how [it] handle[s] typical researcher requests in terms of the privacy and confidentiality afforded to any requestors. Id. at 115 ¶ 21. As set forth in its staff manual, NARA's general policy on the disclosure of researcher requests is as follows: Unless required by law, staff members will not reveal the subject of a researcher's project or the specific items provided to a researcher without the express consent of the researcher. Id. at 116 ¶ 21.