A sales sign spotted this morning on Manhattan’s Upper West Side:
That would be Obama’s Executive Order 13489, which revoked Bush’s crippling 2001 Presidential Records Act implementation instructions. The Bush rules allowed past-presidents (and vice presidents) to withhold their records from public release without appeal until their death. Furthermore, allowed them to pass that right on to their heirs and designees–in perpetuity. Now that’s what I call a privilege!
As I wrote about a month ago, Obama’s repealing order was ecstatically received, as reversing the policy was a major goal of the country’s historian and archivist organizations, as well as the broader transparency community.
And that’s surely the market this shopkeeper is hoping will trample down the doors.
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.