{"id":60,"date":"2026-05-24T23:06:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=60"},"modified":"2026-05-24T23:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:06:35","slug":"judge-rules-that-trump-cannot-ignore-presidential-records-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"Judge rules that Trump cannot ignore Presidential Records Act"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Washington federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration cannot ignore the Presidential Records Act, and held that the law is likely constitutional.<\/p>\n

Read more Tensions over prediction markets dominate Senate hearing<\/a><\/p>\n

The order, from Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, directed White House staff to comply with the law, which requires the preservation of all presidential documents, even those on personal devices. The ruling came in lawsuits brought by the American Historical Association and oversight groups in response to a change in White House policy that could allow for the destruction of records.<\/p>\n

In a more than 50-page opinion issued alongside the order, Bates defended the 1978 law passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo adopt the government\u2019s position that the Act is unconstitutional would disable Congress and future Presidents from reflecting on experience, in defiance of the very words engraved on the National Archives Building in Washington: \u2018What is past is prologue,\u2019\u201d Bates wrote.<\/p>\n

Bates noted that his order did not address President Donald Trump or Vice President JD Vance, but instead White House staff. Bates gave the government until next Tuesday before his ruling would take effect.<\/p>\n

The government will likely appeal.<\/p>\n

The groups who sued praised the decision in statements issued Wednesday, including Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. Chukwu called it an \u201cimportant victory for presidential accountability\u201d in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s decision helps ensure that the American people \u2014 not the White House \u2014 retain ownership over the historical record of the presidency. It reaffirms a basic democratic principle: presidents do not get to decide unilaterally what history will remember and what the public will never see,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Bates wrote that the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate uses of federal property, and it can designate presidential records as such and require their preservation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bates also noted that the president has a role in determining how the records are preserved, can designate personal files that do not have to be preserved and can delay their public release after he leaves office.<\/p>\n

Read more House passes housing bill still at odds with Senate version<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEach branch of government derives its authority from the trust placed in it by the People, and Congress has validly determined that this Act helps to maintain that trust by shining some light on the activities of the President and his aides,\u201d Bates wrote.<\/p>\n

Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that Congress \u201creasonably\u201d believed in the wake of the Nixon administration\u2019s Watergate scandal \u2014 and Nixon\u2019s subsequent attempts to destroy tapes and other evidence \u2014 that it needed to act to prevent similar behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, the country has not had another Watergate scandal since President Nixon, which suggests that the sunshine disinfectant of the Records Act is working as intended,\u201d Bates wrote.<\/p>\n

On April 1, the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel issued a memorandum finding the law unconstitutional, arguing it exceeded Congress\u2019 powers and intruded on the powers of the president, according to court records. The day after that, White House Counsel David Warrington issued a memorandum to White House staff laying out that they no longer had to comply with the law.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that, the American Historical Association, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and others filed lawsuits seeking to block the change.<\/p>\n

Bates held a hearing in the cases last week, where the government argued that even if Bates upheld the law the guidance actually complied with it.<\/p>\n

Bates highlighted that texts and other instant messages on staffs\u2019 personal phones may not be preserved in the new policy and could be lost to history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, Bates noted that the guidance would not cover the president or vice president\u2019s documents and that the guidance did not say whether it would comply with the normal process for destroying records, which involves consultations with the National Archives and Congress.<\/p>\n

Read more No, it\u2019s not an anti-incumbent election, Volume 4<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Washington federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration cannot ignore the Presidential Records Act, and held that the law is likely constitutional. The order, from Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, directed White House staff to comply with the law, which requires the preservation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-white-house"],"yoast_head":"\nJudge rules that Trump cannot ignore Presidential Records Act - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=60\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge rules that Trump cannot ignore Presidential Records Act - American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Washington federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration cannot ignore the Presidential Records Act, and held that the law is likely constitutional. 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