Court Rules Against Disclosure in Bush White House E-mail Case
BY Nancy Scola | Wednesday, May 20 2009
Bush Administration-era emails can stay "lost" for now, according to a new ruling by a federal appeals court, reports the AP.
The critical point in the court's decision is that the White House Office of Administration responsible for keeping tabs on White House emails is an administrative office, not a government "agency." Thus, it's not subject to Freedom of Information Act disclosure requirements.
As we mentioned yesterday, the Obama Administration is itself wrestling with how it will keep track of White House emails. The challenge of applying good government principles to a Blackberrying presidency is that the open flow of digital communication (a good thing, in many people's eyes) can put a great deal of strain on record-keeping aimed at transparency and accountability (also a good thing, in the view of many).
The Obama Administration has been backing the idea that some Bush White House email records needn't be disclosed.
One interesting twist for us here: the White House office responsible for handling the Bush e-mail case is the very same office responsible for overseeing how the Obama White House meets disclosure and record-keeping requirements as it experiments on the web with Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and the like. There are only so many hours in the day, even at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Time spent dealing with the Bush email case is, potentially, time not available to help the new presidency determine how to engage online.
(The photo above, by White House photographer Pete Souza, is of Blackberrys and other phones taken from members of Congress during a closed briefing at the White House.)