Why Roberts’ Affirmative Action File Is Missing
Why Roberts’ Affirmative Action File Is Missing
Whatever happened to the Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ file on affirmative action, it can be definitively stated that this is all President Bush’s fault. Sound a little extreme? Not really.
Back in 1978, Congress passed the Presidential Records Act out of fear that “President Richard Nixon would never allow public access to his papers.†The Act states that “a former president’s papers belong to the American people†and it is the duty of the National Archives to make the papers available to the public. The law also allowed “former presidents to prevent access to some records for up to 12 years.”
In his last two days in office, Reagan issued an executive order requiring “that both the current and former president be given 30 days’ notice before the release of any presidential papers. During that time, the current or former administration could demand further delays to check for any documents that might fall under executive privilege.†Reagan claimed the full 12 years before his papers were to be released.
In 2001, the deadline on the Reagan papers was up. The Archivist gave notice to the White House as well as the Office of President Reagan. According to the Stanford Law Review, the papers were ready and President Reagan’s representative gave the okay for release, stating “that Reagan’s Administration did not desire to claim privilege on any of the withheld records, and that it had no problem with all of them being released to the public.â€
But the papers weren’t released. President Bush wouldn’t allow it.
The “[Bush] White House asked for three extensions to review these papers. According to John Carlin, the National Archivist, none of the…documents in question were ever examined by White House officials.†[Stanford Law Review, 11/1/02] That’s because Bush administration officials weren’t reviewing the papers, they were reviewing the law itself.
The White House filed for extension after extension until President Bush issued his own executive order, giving “the White House or former presidents veto powers on the release” of presidential papers.
It is that November 1st, 2001 Executive Order the White House has been using to justify “vetting thousands of pages of Roberts’ papers archived at the Reagan Library before deciding which ones it will provide the Senate in anticipation of Roberts’ confirmation hearings.â€
In other words, the affirmative action file on Roberts would have been in the public domain – rather than lost somewhere in Neverland – as far back as 2001…if it weren’t for President Bush.
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Do you think Bush had Roberts in mind when he made that decision? Seems doubtful.
August 24th, 2005 at 6:39 amI don’t think Bush had Roberts in mind. But he just generally likes to keep as much secret as he can. It gives him more power.
August 24th, 2005 at 6:43 amBush had his father in mind when he made the decision.
August 24th, 2005 at 7:11 amSecrecy in government is a tool of fascism.
August 24th, 2005 at 8:29 amI honestly never thought the American people
could be duped like this. I thought we had that
American cynical savvy. Guess not.
I don’t know when America went from actually listening and engaging in political discussion to shuffling around from Exxon to Wal-Mart in an SUV with stupid ribbons supporting nothing more than yet another corporation making stupid magnetic ribbons to put on gas guzzling SUVs who drive our oil up just because they want to be bigger than the other sheeple on the road.
I don’t know when this change happened but it was during the Reagan admin. Which brings me to why these Reagan papers won’t be released. They really don’t want the American people to see anything new about, say, Iran Contra or the Hostages or maybe info regarding the Saudis or even Hussein that might not show favorably to the repub hero, Reagan. I sense there are docs that would really be damning to the “new order.” They are once again practicing CYA.
August 24th, 2005 at 9:09 amOff topic, but some of you may have not seen:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1427743,00.html
August 24th, 2005 at 9:13 amThis post is as bogus as it was a week ago. Close, but no cigar, Judd.
August 24th, 2005 at 10:03 amblue state red, what is bogus about the post? if it weren’t for president bush’s 11th hour executive order, the 1978 presidential records act would have put the reagan papers — including the roberts file on affirmative action — out into the public domain back in 2001.
August 24th, 2005 at 10:15 amBSR is covering his ears – typical. If you don’t like something you hear – just don’t hear it.
August 24th, 2005 at 10:34 amThat file disappeared weeks ago after two admin. lawyers looked at it. It isn’t “stolen” – it is “misplaced.” The result is the same.
August 24th, 2005 at 11:02 amWhy isn’t the media following up on this — are they waiting for the hearings? That’s the problem — everyone always waits for something else to happen before they do their job.
Media? You’re kidding, right Marie? Your last sentence sums it up.
August 24th, 2005 at 12:07 pmDumbya won’t release ray-gun’s papers because he is afraid the American people will see the same names in them that are bouncing around the scandals today.
Besides, daddy told him not to release them.
August 24th, 2005 at 12:41 pmKJ – exactly!
August 24th, 2005 at 12:50 pmYou want to find the missing file folder? Look in Roves office. It was sent there directly at the request of Rove and was signed for by one of his seven secretaries.
August 24th, 2005 at 4:26 pmThere is a vast number of acts, regulations, executive orders, et al, that were clearly prepared prior to the Bush Administration’s election. Among these were the Patriot Act, the plans for invasion of Iraq, environmental policy rollbacks, various efforts to classify most of the actions of the executive branch and such. Bush certainly wasn’t involved in this preparation nor is it likely he even knows what he is signing(or saying for that matter). Thus whomever created this particular executive order was operating under instructions from the same cabal that has given us all the rest.
August 24th, 2005 at 4:38 pm“I honestly never thought the American people could be duped like this.”
Well, WE aren’t duped, but what can we do? There are currently no checks and balances to stop the neo-cons.
August 24th, 2005 at 5:23 pmThe COMPOUND FELONY = one of his first actions as
August 24th, 2005 at 11:51 pmpresident(no it was not to schedule a vacation- that
was third)was to block/delay FOIA requests for Reagan
papers Under the terms of the law covering those
papers,they were open for disclosure on the very Day
George the younger took office,(amazingly without a
shot being fired),Jan 20th 2000. Three lawsuits delayed the release until an amendment to the act was passed in late Oct(?)permanantly blocking access to Ron’s ( oh yeah Cheney, Rumsfeld, Geo. 1 and a slew of now employed thugs.)papers. Iran Contra had a bunch of these same smucks at work including I think Colin Polyp
who for all we know was blackmailed into his UN sales pitch. The shit runs deep at the white house cesspool. The crimes recall “The Past Is Prologue”
An Executive Order Is not a Law…
Is it not about time the use, validity, and lawfullness of the “Executive Order” is fully vetted?
September 5th, 2005 at 1:59 pm