Press release today from The National Archive Archives: “A federal judge’s dismissal last month of a landmark open government case was based on two factual misconceptions and deserves re-opening, according to court filings last week. The lawsuit challenges President Bush’s Executive Order 13,233 that gave former Presidents and their heirs (as well as former Vice-Presidents for the first time) indefinite authority to hold up release of White House records.
The National Security Archive and other plaintiffs in American Historical Association, et al. v. National Archives and Records Administration asked Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to reconsider her March 29, 2004, opinion dismissing the case on standing, “justiciability” and ripeness grounds. The court’s opinion mistakenly assumed that no Reagan-era records were continuing to be processed under the order, and that plaintiffs were not challenging the withholding of 74 specific pages of records.”