A federal judge is ordering the White House to follow the Presidential Records Act, rejecting the Department of Justice’s recent opinion that the Watergate-era law is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled that the law — which for decades ensured that presidential records become public after a president leaves office — is likely constitutional and that a group of historians that brought suit successfully showed there is a “substantial risk” that the White House is not complying with the law. 

“In sum, the original public meaning of the text of the Constitution, canons of interpretation, Supreme Court precedent, general principles of property law, and almost 50 years of practice confirm that Congress has the enumerated power to regulate presidential records under the Property Clause,” Bates wrote. 

In a 54-page ruling that invoked the words of George Orwell and William Shakespeare, Judge Bates emphasized the importance of presidential records becoming public. 

“To adopt the government’s position that the Act is unconstitutional would disable Congress and future Presidents from reflecting on experience, in defiance of the very words engraved on the National Archives Building in Washington: ‘What is past is prologue,'” he wrote. 

Judge Bates gave the Trump administration until May 26 for his order to take effect. 

Rejecting a decades-old law enacted after the Watergate scandal to ensure the preservation of presidential records, Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser stated last month that the Presidential Records Act was unconstitutional and “untethered from any valid and identifiable legislative purpose.” 

“The PRA exceeds the oversight power because it serves no identifiable and valid legislative purpose. It exceeds any preservation power because Congress cannot preserve presidential records merely for the sake of posterity,” the DOJ’s 52-page opinion said. 

After his first term in office, Trump was accused of violating the Presidential Records Act by storing boxes of sensitive presidential records at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He was indicted for allegedly retaining classified information and obstructing justice, though the case was dismissed over U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s concerns about the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith. 

The PRA places the National Archives and Records Administration in control of the official records — including emails, phone records, and other documentary material created by the president and his staff in the course of their duties — once the president leaves office.