Did the White House Kill the Record of Judge Roberts’ Views on Affirmative Action?

Last year during the lead-up to the confirmation hearings for Judge John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States, it was discovered that a file headed “Affirmative Action” was missing from the White House files stored at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Roberts had worked as a White House aide during the Reagan administration.

A report from the National Archives inspector general found that White House aides from the Bush administration visited the Reagan Library to do a background check on Roberts. The report found that the aides were permitted to bring personal items into the library and were left alone at times with the document collection. The report says that the White House aides were the last known people to see the file entitled “Affirmative Action.”

The White House has denied charges that the aides took or destroyed the file.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.