[Infowarrior] - Court Says White House Can Keep Memos on Bush E-mails Private

[Richard Forno]

Court Says White House Can Keep Memos on Bush E-mails Private

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 11:04 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051901322_pf.html

A federal appeals court ruled this morning that the White House does  
not have to make public internal documents examining the potential  
disappearance of e-mails during the Bush administration.

In upholding a ruling last year by a federal judge, the appeals court  
found that the White House's Office of Administration is not subject  
to the Freedom of Information Act.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility  
and Ethics in Washington. The group filed a lawsuit in 2007 seeking to  
force the Office of Administration to comply with a FOIA request for  
documents related to the alleged sloppy retention of e-mails between  
2001 and 2005, a period that included the Iraq war.

The Office of Administration, which performs a variety of services for  
the Executive Office of the President, had complied with FOIA requests  
for years. But the office announced in 2007 that it no longer would  
process FOIA requests because officials did not believe the office was  
subject to the law. White House officials argued that the Office of  
Administration provides only administrative support and services to  
the president and his staff and does not exercise enough independent  
authority to fall under FOIA.

A 1980 Supreme Court decision found that the FOIA law does not extend  
"to the President's immediate personal staff or units in the Executive  
Office [of the President] whose sole function is to advise and assist  
the President."

The three-judge appeals panel this morning ruled that the Office of  
Administration's work "is directly related to the operational and  
administrative support of the work of the President" and his staff.

Because the Office of Administration does not perform "tasks other  
than operational and administrative support for the President and his  
staff, we conclude that [it] lacks substantial independent authority  
and is therefore not an agency under FOIA," wrote Judge Thomas B.  
Griffith, who was joined in the 13-page opinion by Chief Judge David  
B. Sentelle and Judge A. Raymond Randolph.

CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said her organization was  
unlikely to appeal the ruling. But Sloan said CREW and other advocacy  
groups sent a letter recently to the Obama administration urging it  
have the Office of Administration comply with FOIA requests. She noted  
that the office had complied with the open records law for years.

"Transparency and accountability start at home," she said.