Correspondence Between Donald Dawson and Attorney General Tom Clark with Related Material
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OCR Page 1 of 10REMEME
OF
Office of the Attorney General
Washington, D.C.
FRUMAN
NATIONAL
DEPARTMENT
ARCHIVES
AUG 3 1948
RECORDS
SERVICE
MEMORANDUM FOR HONORABLE DONALD S. DAWSON
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
This is in further response to your memorandum of July 10,
1948, enclosing a letter dated June 15, 1948, from the Civil Service
Commission.
The letter of June 15 raises the question of the policy to be
adopted by the Commission with respect to furnishing information from
its confidential files to a congressional committee. While this matter
is one of policy rather than law, for the consideration of the Commission
and the President of the United States, I may call to your attention (1)
that the traditional policy of the Executive has been to preserve on a
confidential basis the investigative reports of the agencies within the
executive branch, and (2) that personnel records and files of the Civil
Service Commission have long been maintained on a confidential basis.
The first of these policies is discussed in Attorney General Jackson's
opinion of April 30, 1941, and is reiterated in President Truman's
directive of March 13, 1948. The second is implicit in an opinion of
the Attorney General rendered in 1893 ( 20 Op. A.G. 557), and was
Filed
expressed in a letter from President Truman to Representative Hoffman,
252-K,
dated October 21, 1947, a copy of which is attached.
Filed2
I think, therefore, that the Commission is justified in maintain-
ing its present strict policy. I may add that the question whether the
files of the House Committee on Un-American Activities will remain open
to the Commission is one to be decided by that Committee, and that in
these matters there is not necessarily reciprocity.
known
Attorney General
Relations
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