OPEN GOVERNMENT — Attorney Michael C. Dorf, in his FindLaw column, explains that if a Bush Administration executive order were canceled, the next President's reported Blackberry addiction could pose a greater threat to the security of his messaging than to public access to the message records.
Given what the President-elect has said in the past about the proper scope of executive branch secrecy, there is reason to hope that the Obama Administration will rescind or substantially modify the Bush order and honor the spirit of the (Presidential Records Act).
But doing so will leave the new President legally vulnerable, should he have the technological capacity to communicate securely via his Blackberry. Purely personal emails would not have to be preserved for the archivist. Yet Obama's core stated reason for wanting to continue to use his Blackberry (and email more generally) is that he wants to stay in touch with people who can inform his views about policy, not fantasy football. Thus, under a properly restored version of the PRA, most of Obama's email and text messages would have to be saved for the archives.
But doing so will leave the new President legally vulnerable, should he have the technological capacity to communicate securely via his Blackberry. Purely personal emails would not have to be preserved for the archivist. Yet Obama's core stated reason for wanting to continue to use his Blackberry (and email more generally) is that he wants to stay in touch with people who can inform his views about policy, not fantasy football. Thus, under a properly restored version of the PRA, most of Obama's email and text messages would have to be saved for the archives.
