On November 1, 2001, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13233, essentially overriding the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which provides that a president's papers will be made available to the public twelve years after he leaves office. Bush's new order gives the White House, as well as former presidents, the right to veto this release of documents, thereby taking the responsibility for administering presidential papers away from the archivist of the United States. By forcing citizens to go to court to obtain the right to view an administration's records, the order effectively blocks access to information that enables Americans to hold our presidents accountable for their actions.

Almost immediately after Bush signed the order, a remarkably bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats, both liberal and conservative, expressed everything from dismay to outrage. In addition, a group including historians, journalists and civic activists filed suit, which is still pending, to block implementation of this order. In the middle of the fray are professional archivists. Those of us who labor in the nation's archives and special collections libraries are entrusted with ensuring that citizens and scholars have access to the records of human society and culture, as well as to the important records of our government. The guarantee of such access is a cornerstone of the Constitution and of democracy in general. The Society of American Archivists, along with the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the White House Correspondents Association, the American Political Science Association, the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History, and others have made it clear that the White House is on the wrong side of this battle.

Bush's executive order is titled "Further Implementation of the Presidential Records Act." But rather than "implementing" that law, the order abrogates the core principles of the act and violates both its spirit and letter.

The Presidential Records Act was created out of the legal morass surrounding the Watergate scandals and legitimate congressional fears that former president Nixon would never allow public access to the records of his administration. That legislation established once and for all-or so we thought-the principle that presidential papers represent the official records of activity by the highest office in our government of, by, and for the people-and that they therefore belong to the U.S. government and, by extension, its citizens. The act further mandates that management of, custody of, and access to such records should be governed on behalf of the nation by the archivist of the United States.

Executive Order 13233 directly subverts the intent of the Presidential Records Act by placing ultimate responsibility for decisions regarding access to presidential papers not only with President Bush, but with any sitting president in the future, as well as every ex-president, and, even further, the family members and heirs of former presidents, apparently without limit.

While there is lingering uncertainty over the extent to which an executive order can trump or override statutory law, Congress is in the process of deciding this question. After several hearings, Rep. Stephen Horn (R- Cal.), along with twenty-three co-sponsors, has introduced H.R. 4187. This bill will reach the floor of the House sometime this fall. It is expected to pass and will go on to the Senate. Congress rightly seems to see this as an unwarranted extension of the concept of "executive privilege," in addition to the order's being contrary to law. More broadly, access to the vital historical records of this nation should not be governed by executive will; this is exactly the situation that the existing law was created to prevent. Furthermore, for such access to be curtailed or nullified by an executive process not subject to public or legislative review or scrutiny violates the principles upon which our nation was founded. The essential fact is that the president's papers are not in fact the president's papers, but rather the records of the people's presidency.