CREW wins TRO against white house -- all e-mail to be preserved!

whew -- off-the-grid
all day -- but good stuff
to report -- in full text!

this is scarcely a surprise -- the
law, on this score, is entirely
plain and transparent -- but, the
white house may not destroy,
or fail to preserve, its email, in
violation of the plain comands
of the presidential records act.

that said, TROs are rare-birds
in federal court. . . usually, if
the law is this clear, the parites
agree to abide by it -- without a
contested order needing to be entered.

not so, cheney, bush and co.

[my earlier backgrounder on
this appears under this link.]

what is means, for CREW, and for
us all, as citizenry, is that we
will have an archive of the actions
taken -- at least insofar as preserved
on any of the myriad email servers,
accounts and email domains used by,
or under the control of white house
employees. this will be a treasure trove,
containing perhaps five to ten million
emails karl rove and dick cheney never
intended that america be able to see.

so -- huzzah! -- well done, CREW!

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Civil Action 07-01707
(HHK) Civil

CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY
AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON,
Plaintiff,
v.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE
PRESIDENT, et al.,
Defendants

[and]

THE NATIONAL SECURITY
ARCHIVE
Plaintiff,
v.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE
PRESIDENT, et al.,
Defendants

O R D E R

Before the court is the motion of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for a temporary restraining order. The motion was referred to United Sates Magistrate Judge John Facciola for his Report and Recommendation pursuant LCvR 72.3(a).

Having considered the motion, the opposition thereto, the Report and Recommendation of Magistrate Judge Facciola, the objections to the Report and Recommendation, the response to the objections, and the record of this case, including the transcript of the proceedings before the Magistrate Judge, the court, upon de novo review, adopts the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation.

Accordingly, it is this 12th day of November 2007, hereby ORDERED that defendants shall preserve media, no matter how described, presently in their possess or under their custody or control, that were created with the intention of preserving data in the event of its inadvertent destruction. Defendants shall preserve the media under conditions that will permit their eventual use, if necessary, and shall not transfer said media out of their custody or control without leave of this court.


/s/ Henry H. Kennedy, Jr.
United States District Judge
Dated: November 12, 2007