Opinion: Ripping and burning: how Trump White House handled some legally protected documents

By passing the Presidential Records Act, Congress sought to make it possible for the public to better understand how a presidency unfolded and allow future elected officials the opportunity to access critical information, whether for scholarship, an investigation, national security concerns or more.

For historians, we rely on the records that presidents leave behind as our bread and butter. These documents often provide the best and most accurate record of the those who inhabited the White House. While tourists walk through the display areas of presidential libraries, historians are squirreled away in the reading room looking through boxes of memos, letters, correspondence, internal publications, reports and more.

Trump’s ability to exploit the Presidential Records Act has highlighted a broader problem in the past few years. So much of our government and the system of checks and balances depend on the assumption that elected officials will simply abide by the norms of the office. We count on presidents to respect internal guardrails instead of pursuing political power at all costs. We count on legislators to be driven by a love of country — and not partisanship — to check the executive branch.

When those norms are trampled over, our constitutional system of checks and balances, as well as the post-Watergate reforms meant to curb abusive presidential behavior, is rendered ineffective and insufficient.

In 2022, there are two paths forward to deal with these issues. Congress could push for the reforms that Murphy and Quigley have put forward to diminish the latitude officials have to flout the rules. And voters can consistently support politicians who demonstrate the capacity to respect certain limits.