Executive Order 13489 - Barack Obama

Executive Order 13489

Revokes EO 13233 (George w. Bush)
which replaced EO 12667 (Ronald Reagan)

The lowdown:
EO 12667 defaulted to the Attorney General or Counsel to Incumbent President if records could be held secret by Executive Privilege from the Former President. Former President could sue to keep the records secret by final court order. EO 13233 defaulted to the Former President if records could be held secret by Executive Privilege from the Former President. The Incumbent President could sue to get the records released. It also extended the length of time the Former President had to peruse the records being requested from 30 days to 90 days.

EO 13489 defaults to the Attorney General or Counsel to Incumbent President if records can be held secret by Executive Privilege from the Former President. Shortens the time back to 30 days review by the Former President. Former President can sue to keep the records secret.

There is a great article here about the topic of this Executive Order.

So what does this mean? On the surface, it looks like George Bush was attempting to extend the privileges of the Executive Office after the tenure was up, thus taking a measure of power away from the Sitting President. And, meaning that any information that might be viewed unfavorably could be hidden against the wishes of the current administration. What is interesting to me about this is Barack basically rolls back to the order that Reagan issued.

It also brings up the question, how much secrecy is necessary? Is 12 years too much time to allow records to be hidden from the public? Or is it not enough time? What do they really have to hide?