In our earlier post, the Spark offered quotes from a recently-released Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. On April 1, 2026, Trump officials declared the Presidential Records Act (PDA) unconstitutional, and further claimed that “the President need not further comply with its dictates.”
But that is the only undeniable proof of Executive Branch activities – and thus, the only definite means citizens have of holding presidential officials accountable for their actions. If accountability goes, democracy goes with it. Thus, Trump’s claim is effectively a proclamation of dictatorship.
Below, the Spark offer a number of additional – but still essential – quotes from this important CRS study.
Ownership of Presidential Records
“Public ownership of presidential records was not explicitly provided in statute prior to the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act and the PRA. Previous Presidents, acting on the assumption that their presidency’s materials were personal property, would add the collections to family archives, university libraries, or other institutions.
“In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his intention to create a new type of facility to house his presidential papers in order to preserve and provide public access to the historical materials. At the time, these materials were considered to be the property of the former President.
“NARA notes that the 1930s were marked by a dramatic increase in the volume of presidential papers, leading President Roosevelt to seek the advice of historians and others on how to preserve such papers. In 1939, Congress passed a joint resolution permitting the Archivist to accept these materials from President Roosevelt as a gift ‘for and in the name of the United States.’
“In his remarks at the library’s 1941 opening, President Roosevelt commented on the importance of keeping presidential materials safe, stating his intention that the library serve as ‘proof – if any proof is needed – that our confidence in the future of democracy has not diminished in this Nation and will not diminish.’
“Similarly, upon the establishment of the Harry S. Truman Library under the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act, President Truman remarked that ‘[t]his Library will belong to the people of the United States. My papers will be the property of the people and be accessible to them. And this is as it should be. The papers of the Presidents are among the most valuable sources of material for history. They ought to be preserved, and they ought to be used.’
“Commenting on the importance of maintaining the context of presidential decision-making for the historical record, President Dwight D. Eisenhower observed that “[j]ust as no political program can be carried out in a vacuum, so can no record or history of that time be properly portrayed except with a background of the events and the times in which they lived.”
Although successive Presidents agreed on the importance of providing presidential materials for public use after the conclusion of an Administration, prior to 1978 and the PRA, the law did not provide a mechanism for inspecting the completeness of the records being gifted to the people of the United States.
“President Lyndon B. Johnson attested in 1971 that ‘[t]here is no record of a mistake, nothing critical, ugly, or unpleasant that is not included’ in the LBJ Presidential Library & Museum’s files. At the time of the LBJ Library’s establishment, the process of donating materials rested on an unspoken understanding that the former President would provide materials that would be of interest to the public. Three years later, this understanding was tested upon President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974.”
