JUDGE UPHOLDS NARA WITHOLDINGS

30 Sep 2008 // Washington, DC - Today in CREW v. the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), a lawsuit CREW brought under the FOIA for documents related to the Secret Service's treatment and preservation of White House visitor records, District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton upheld the vast majority of NARA's withholdings as deliberative or protected by the attorney-client or work product privileges. For a handful of internal NARA documents, the court ordered an in camera review to determine if their withholding was proper. As a result of this ruling, the public is unlikely to know the extent to which NARA supported or opposed the position of the White House that visitor records are not agency records of the Secret Service but instead are presidential records not subject to public disclosure.