There's a lot of data and political-systems content related to just about every executive action. I'm not looking forward to a parade of Executive Order text submissions from Obama fans who can squint and find a hacker angle in anything.
On the face of it, there is one major change under the new order: a former president can no longer unilaterally request withholding of their records (until possibly reversed by a court order). Now, the Archivist acting with the approval of the current President can ignore a former President's wishes.
Whether that's really a dramatic shift in practice, we'll see. (There may not be a single record actually released by this change, if Obama and his Archivist agree with former Presidents on any requests.) An article actually arguing this is a dramatic pro-hacker shift would be welcome. In the meantime, the raw Order text with a spun headline is a bad precedent.
I fully expect tenuous submissions of this type will fade with time. But the sooner they are replaced with analytical takes -- even if on the same subjects -- the better.
Editted with correction: removed "for the 12-year period" and reference to only Bush-43 and Clinton-42 as being affected. The prior policy extended to any former President.
Now, the Archivist acting with the approval of the current
President can ignore a former President's wishes.
Actually, it's a bit more dramatic than that. Section 4(b) says "the Archivist shall abide by any instructions given him by the incumbent President or his designee unless otherwise directed by a final court order."
Under this executive order, the Archivst acts under the instruction of the current President. That same section gives the former President 30 days notice before his records get released. If the former President wants to assert executive privilege (and the current President disagrees) the former President has to get a court to help him out. This will make it fairly expensive to assert executive privilege, but it also provides judicial oversight over claims of executive privilege by former Presidents.
On the face of it, there is one major change under the new order: a former president can no longer unilaterally request withholding of their records (until possibly reversed by a court order). Now, the Archivist acting with the approval of the current President can ignore a former President's wishes.
Whether that's really a dramatic shift in practice, we'll see. (There may not be a single record actually released by this change, if Obama and his Archivist agree with former Presidents on any requests.) An article actually arguing this is a dramatic pro-hacker shift would be welcome. In the meantime, the raw Order text with a spun headline is a bad precedent.
I fully expect tenuous submissions of this type will fade with time. But the sooner they are replaced with analytical takes -- even if on the same subjects -- the better.
Editted with correction: removed "for the 12-year period" and reference to only Bush-43 and Clinton-42 as being affected. The prior policy extended to any former President.