In April 2026, the American Historical Association, in collaboration with American Oversight, filed a lawsuit challenging a recent memorandum from the Department of Justice declaring the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional, potentially blocking public access to hundreds of millions of records and presenting serious risk to transparency and recordkeeping throughout the executive branch, including the National Archives.<\/p>\n
The American Historical Association and American Oversight filed a motion<\/a> for a preliminary injunction seeking immediate court action to block the Trump administration from disregarding the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and to prevent the destruction or loss of presidential records. The motion argues that without urgent court intervention, records documenting presidential decision-making could be “lost to history.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the Motion\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n The American Historical Association, in collaboration with American Oversight, filed a lawsuit<\/a> challenging a recent memorandum from the Department of Justice declaring the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional, potentially blocking public access to hundreds of millions of records and presenting serious risk to transparency and recordkeeping throughout the executive branch, including the National Archives.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the Complaint\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n Read Sarah Weicksel’s (Executive Director, AHA) Declaration<\/a><\/p>\n Read Kathryn Cramer Brownell’s (Purdue Univ.) Declaration<\/a><\/p>\n Read Matthew Connolly’s (Columbia Univ.) Declaration<\/a><\/p>\n Read Elizabeth Marx’s (American Oversight) Declaration<\/a><\/p>\n Read Timothy J. Naftali’s (Columbia Univ.) Declaration<\/a><\/p>\n Read Natalia Mehlman Petrzela’s (New School) Declaration<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The American Historical Association provides leadership for the discipline, defends academic freedom, and promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life. The AHA, in collaboration with our colleagues at the American Council of Learned Societies and the Modern Language Association, have filed a lawsuit in response to the illegal dismantling of the National Endowment for the Humanities. We need your support for this and our ongoing advocacy efforts<\/a> at the federal and state levels. Please join join<\/a> or donate<\/a> today.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn More\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t The preservation of these records, both current, past and future, are all essential to democratic processes that depend upon appropriate public scrutiny,Sarah Weicksel When Presidential records are withheld indefinitely, or made inaccessible, it becomes impossible to reconstruct what officials did in the name of the people who elected them. And if our government is not accountable even in the court of history, it is accountable to no one. The costs of that loss – diminished public confidence in political institutions, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the deepening inability of citizens to evaluate or even understand critical policy choices – are incalculable.Matthew Connelly<\/strong>Columbia University<\/p>\t\t\n\t\t\t AHA members will lose access to information that would create the historical record of presidential activities, and that would help to educate the public about that history. AHA members would be left with an incomplete historical record by which to professionally research, produce scholarship on, and teach U.S. history. Once lost, this information is irretrievable, causing AHA and its members to lose access to the documents and other materials essential to understanding, and learning from, our past.Sarah Weicksel Exploring and analyzing the president’s relationship to any number of issues, through the archival record, is often one of the most important ways that historians begin to understand the national and federal dimensions of a wide range of concerns. Losing access to these sources would be a major blow to the historical profession, and to our collective understanding of the United States, past and present.Natalia Mehlman Petrzela<\/strong>The New School<\/p>\t\t\n If you are a member of the media and would like to submit a request for a referral or interview, please email\u00a0press@historians.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t\tApril 6, 2026\t<\/h3>\n\t
\n\t\t\tAHA Member Declarations\t<\/h3>\n\t
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<\/strong>In Politico<\/em>, April 2026
Executive Director, American Historical Association<\/p>\t\t\n\t\t\t
<\/strong>Executive Director
American Historical Association<\/p>\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tFor the Press\t<\/h4>\n\t