Government lawyers unlawfully declared a law intended to preserve official records generated by the president and his staff unconstitutional, a new lawsuit says.
The Office of Legal Counsel’s decision that the White House doesn’t need to comply with the Presidential Records Act purports to undo an act of Congress, contravenes a decision of the US Supreme Court, and violates the separation of powers doctrine twice over, the American Historical Association and American Oversight said in a complaint filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The defendants include President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and several of their closest advisers.
The suit is intended to “stop the unconstitutional actions of the government, ensure the President and his administration abide by the recordkeeping obligations required by federal law, and to preserve the historical record that belongs to the American people, before it is forever lost,” the plaintiffs said. The OLC’s decision would give the president the freedom to destroy his official records or keep them for his personal use, they said.
The memo and filing follow an inquiry sent by congressional Democrats to the Department of Justice for more information about previously undisclosed records from the investigation into Trump’s retention of materials after his first term. They’re looking into whether the president kept highly secret files and whether he intended to use them to further his own business interests.
Congress enacted the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974 in response to President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation following the Watergate scandal. The law gave the US ownership and custody of documents and recordings from his time in office. It also prohibited the destruction of presidential records.
The US Supreme Court upheld the law in 1977, saying Congress had the power to regulate executive branch documents. No administration has questioned the law’s validity in the past 45 years, the plaintiffs said.
The Presidential and Federal Records Act of 2014 amended the law by adding electronic records to the list of materials that must be preserved, requiring officials to use official government email accounts when sending presidential records electronically, and requiring the documents’ transfer to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of a presidential term. The law establishes that the records belong to the public, the complaint said.
The OLC concluded April 1 that portions of the law are unconstitutional, that they couldn’t be severed from the constitutional provisions, and that the president need not comply.
The AHA promotes the preservation of government documents for historical study, and American Oversight is committed to ensuring government transparency. They asked the court to declare the law constitutional, set aside the OLC’s declaration, and require the administration to comply with the law.
The Department of Justice and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jacobson Lawyers Group PLLC and in-house counsel at American Oversight represent the plaintiffs.
The case is Am. Historical Ass’n v. Trump, D.D.C., No. 26-cv-1169, complaint filed 4/6/26 Historical Ass’n v. Trump, D.D.C., No. 26-cv-1169, complaint filed 4/6/26.
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