“This is a real monster,” said Vanderbilt University historian Hugh Graham. Graham wasn’t referring to the latest animated Billy Crystal feature, but to George W. Bush‘s Nov. 1 executive order allowing either the incumbent president or his predecessor to veto the release of the predecessor’s presidential papers. According to the order, the Reagan-era rule — which mandated the release of presidential papers 12 years after the president has left office — is now rescinded. Instead, a former president (or in some cases, a deceased former president’s family) can prevent the release of presidential records, even over the objection of a sitting president. Presidential counselor and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Alberto Gonzales said that opponents would be free to challenge the executive order in court — although he admitted that overturning an executive order judicially could take years.
Historians and journalists have been quick to interpret the Bush order as an attempt to protect his father (Reagan’s vice-president) and other current Bush aides who also served in the Reagan administration. Others have called it an overreaction to the events of Sept. 11 and the current “war on terrorism.” But as Lucius Lomax reported in the Chronicle on Sept. 28 (“W’s Paper Chase,”), at least since 1997 Dubya has been trying to turn his gubernatorial records into federal property. Earlier this year, he succeeded in spiriting them away to College Station and the Bush (the Elder) Presidential Library. Bush’s lawyers have adopted the mysterious position that since the state records of the Bush administration are now in a federal library, they are no longer subject to state law, especially covering open records. (The president is apparently unaware of the old Texas saying, “You can stick your butt in the oven, but that don’t make it biscuits.”)
Just as Attorney General John Ashcroft has used the excuse of “war on terrorism” to lock down as much Dept. of Justice information as possible, so is the president steadily eroding public information law on other matters. But that was nothing new on Sept. 11.
As Hank Williams Jr. might say, “It’s a family tradition.”
This article appears in November 9 • 2001.
