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Obama Attacks Executive Privilege to Go After Bush's Records
January 22, 2009 |
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Obama to Bush: I Can Release Your Records. Don't Like It? Sue.Obama's executive order not only revokes "Bush's infamous Executive Order 13233, which gave current and former presidents and vice presidents, along with their heirs, unprecedented authority to block the disclosure of White House records," but also redefines executive privilege with a much more rigorous standard:On his first day in office, President Obama put former president Bush on notice. His administration just released an executive order that will make it difficult for Bush to shield his White House records--and those of former Vice President Dick Cheney--from public scrutiny by invoking the doctrine of executive privilege.
..."[Obama]'s putting former presidents on notice that if you want to continue a claim of executive privilege that [Obama] doesn't think is well-placed, you're going to have to go to court," says Anne Weismann, the chief counsel for Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW).
Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.
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