Opinion ID: 594395
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: History, Custom and Practice--Common Understanding

Text: 42 Presidential treatment of White House papers as private property has long been recognized and accepted by government officers and other constitutional office-holders confronted with the issue. For instance, over one hundred and fifty years ago, another Article III court had an opportunity to consider the question in a case concerning the descent and disposition of President Washington's papers. See Folsom v. Marsh, 9 F.Cas. 342 (C.C.D.Mass.1841). After acquiring the President's papers by testamentary gift, Justice Bushrod Washington entered into an agreement with Chief Justice Marshall and an editor named Jared Sparks for the publication of a biography detailing the life and times of our first President. Mr. Sparks proceeded to complete and publish a twelve volume history of President Washington's career. Later, a competing publication that borrowed heavily from the earlier work came into print, and a copyright fight ensued. The argument made in defense of the later history was that source documents consisting of President Washington's papers, upon which both of the works were based, were public property and, therefore, not copyrightable. Mr. Justice Story, sitting as Circuit Justice, resolved the conflict in favor of Justice Washington's assignees. Id. at 345. In the course of his opinion, Justice Story had occasion to discuss President Washington's view of the issue at some length, writing:[298 U.S.App.D.C. 261] [I]t is most manifest, that President Washington deemed them his own private property, and bequeathed them to his nephew.... That President Washington, therefore, intended them exclusively for public use, as a donation to the public, or did not esteem them of value as his own private property, appears to me to be a proposition, completely disproved by the evidence. 43 Id. Although Justice Story did add in dicta that a private copyright in these materials might be overcome by public exigencies requiring publication, the threshold determination that the ownership of the materials remained in President Washington's legatee and his assignees went undisturbed. 44 The understanding articulated in Justice Story's opinion has also been shared by officers of the executive branch. In the nineteenth century, a curious sequence of events brought the question of title to presidential papers again to the fore. Upon his death on June 28, 1836, President Madison's papers descended to his widow, Dolley Madison. WILLS at 45. In 1848, the estate having been dissipated, Mrs. Madison, nearly destitute, arranged to sell all of the unpublished manuscript papers of the said James Madison now belonging to and in her possession to the United States for $25,000. See Act of May 31, 1848, 30th Cong., 1st Sess., IX Stat. 235, Ch. 52 (appropriating $25,000 for the purchase); see also WILLS at 48 (Dolley Madison's financial condition tenuous). After the conveyance was complete, it became apparent that Mrs. Madison had withheld a significant portion of the President's materials. Mrs. Madison explained in a letter to the Secretary of State that she construed the terms of the purchase to comprehend only those papers written by the President himself. OFFICIAL OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEYS GENERAL 104-08 (C.C. Andrews ed. 1856) (Opinion of Attorney General Caleb Cushing, Apr. 14, 1855). The materials that she retained, consisting primarily of correspondence written to the President, she bequeathed to her son, Payne Todd, who ultimately sold the papers to Mr. James C. McGuire. Id. By 1855, Congress still had not been able to acquire the balance of the Madison papers; so it inquired of the Attorney General whether there was some way the United States might assert legal title to the materials. Id. In his formal opinion, Attorney General Caleb Cushing concluded that the contract with Dolley Madison was valid, that its terms had been specifically fulfilled and that legal title rested in Mr. McGuire--the United States having no prior claim 28 to the papers. Id. Thus frustrated, Congress allowed the Library of Congress to purchase the remainder of the Madison papers. Resume of Presidential Papers at 39. 45 Finally, individual members of Congress have confirmed the common understanding that Presidents own their presidential papers. In hearings held preceding the passage of the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955, Representative Joseph Martin (through James Milne, administrative assistant) argued in support of the legislation, saying: 46 [T]he Office of the Presidency, like the offices of the Members of Congress and the Supreme Court, are constitutional offices, having separate and independent status in our governmental system, and that every President since George Washington has considered that this separate and independent status of the Office extends to and embraces the papers of the incumbent of the Office. Thus, as is the case with the papers of individual Members of Congress, the papers of the President have always been considered to be their personal property, both during their incumbency and afterward. 47 This has the sanction of law and custom, and has never been authoritatively challenged. 48 Hearings on H.J.Res. 330, 331, and H.J.Res. 332, Before the Executive and Legislative Reorganization Subcomm., 84th Cong., 1st Sess. 12-13 (1955). Later, [298 U.S.App.D.C. 262] Representative McCormack repeated this language verbatim in his own statement for the record. Id. at 58-59. Other members of Congress, although not taking the matter up specifically, assumed presidential ownership as a premise for the legislation. See, e.g., id. at 23 (Representative Jonas asking whether it would not be prudent to ensure that title to the documents pass to the United States upon dedication of each Presidential Library so that future heirs of the Presidents might not remove the documents); id. at 26 (Representative Moss discussing the difficulties of acquiring title to the materials of already deceased Presidents); cf. 84 CONG.REC. 6628 (June 5, 1939) (statement of Representative Rayburn quoted supra ). 49