U.S. President Donald Trump speaks next to first lady Melania Trump during the Congressional Picnic at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2026. REUTERS/Eric Lee
A federal judge quoted author George Orwell in a recent ruling against the Trump administration that orders White House staff to preserve records.
U.S. District Judge John Bates granted a preliminary injunction on Wednesday that requires most White House employees to preserve presidential and vice presidential records. The 54-page decision opened with a line from Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.
"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past," Bates opened. "Perhaps with that lesson in mind, Congress enacted laws to ensure that government records are created, preserved, and made available to the public."
The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel challenged requirements set by the Presidential Records Act last month by issuing a memorandum opinion stating the 1978 law, created in the wake of the Watergate scandal, unconstitutionally exceeds congressional power and violates the separation of powers.
The American Historical Association, American Oversight, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued to invalidate the DOJ opinion, according to reporting by CBS News.
The ruling by Bates orders the White House to comply with the Presidential Records Act. It applies to the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor Stephen Miller, and the executive office of the president, but not to Trump or Vice President JD Vance, according to CBS News.
"While the presidency is a singularly important institution, that gravity does not free it from modest constraint," Bates wrote. "Quite the opposite."
According to Bates, "for nearly fifty years, every president — including President Trump in his first term — has complied with the Records Act," and "none has challenged its facial constitutionality as too burdensome."
The judge then brought up a famous Shakespeare quote that can be found in Washington D.C., writing that "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.'"
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