With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

At behest of historians, Cheney has been ordered to preserve records

This afternoon U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the office of vice president Dick Cheney to preserve all records related to his office and the performance of his duties as the case proceeds. The order came in a case organized by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, together with the AHA, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Archivists, and historians Stanley Kutler and Martin Sherwin.

In her opinion, Judge Kollar-Kottelly observed that she felt this order was necessary because it appeared the defendants in the case—the Office of the Vice President and the National Archives—were trying to narrowly define the records that should be covered by the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and to avoid specifying how the records would be transferred to the Archives.

The AHA joined the case out of concern—given past arguments from the vice president’s office—that records from the office would not be properly preserved. Judge Kollar-Kottelly’s opinion seems to validate that concern, as she observed that “in the absence of a preliminary injunction, all records potentially covered by the PRA as a matter of law, will not be preserved through the termination of this litigation.”
Read entire article at Robert Townsend at the AHA blog