JUDGE ISSUES TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER IN CREW LAWSUIT AGAINST THE WHITE HOUSE

12 Nov 2007 // U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy granted Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's (CREW) request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the White House from destroying back-up copies of millions of deleted emails while the lawsuit is pending.

CREW brought this lawsuit against the Executive Office of the President and the National Archives and Records Administration challenging their failure to restore and preserve millions of emails deleted from White House servers and to institute an effective electronic record-keeping system. When the White House refused to give adequate assurances that it would preserve back-up copies of the deleted emails -- the only source of these important historical records -- CREW sought a temporary restraining order.

In granting CREW's request for a temporary restraining order, the court rejected the White House's claim that it need not preserve all copies and that instead of an order, it should be permitted to file a declaration.

"Today's order is an important and necessary first step toward restoring and preserving for the public all the records of this administration, not just those self-selected for preservation by an administration committed more to secrecy than compliance with the law," Anne Weismann, CREW's Chief Counsel, said today. "This is the first time a federal court has issued a temporary restraining order against the Bush administration."

A temporary restraining order was necessary because without it, as Magistrate Judge Facciola wrote "...destruction of the backup media would be without consequence."