Attorney General Bonta Sues to Block Closure of San Francisco National Archives

SAN BRUNO— California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a lawsuit challenging the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) abrupt decision to close the National Archives at San Francisco and transfer its holdings to other National Archives facilities across the country. The San Francisco National Archives holds records that tell the story of Northern and Central California’s history, with records dating back more than 175 years. These records are invaluable to the State, universities and researchers, families, Tribes, and individuals who come to the facility to connect with their ancestors, culture, and broader community. In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Attorney General Bonta argues that the decision to close this facility, without regard for those who rely on it, violates the Administrative Procedure Act and should be blocked. 

“California won’t stand idly by while the Trump Administration hauls away records that tell the stories of generations of immigrants, Tribal communities, and California families,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The San Francisco National Archives holds records going back to 1850, when California was just becoming a state. These records tell the story of injustice, of some of the painful chapters of our nation’s history, and the people and communities who lived through them and fought for their rights. These records belong here, and I’ll fight to keep them here. The Trump Administration won’t get away with cutting corners and putting up barriers between Californians and our history.”

Located in San Bruno, the San Francisco National Archives holds over 75,000 cubic feet of records from federal agencies in Northern and Central California, Hawaii, most of Nevada, Guam, and American Samoa. Its holdings include immigration, court, inmate, and genealogical records, including Indian boarding school records and immigration case files from the Chinese Exclusion Act era. The San Francisco Archives also houses case records related to Japanese-American internment, including those from the famous case of Fred Korematsu, who sued the United States to challenge his arrest for refusing to report for internment during World War II. 

In June 2026, an email was sent to employees at the San Francisco Archives stating that NARA planned to close the San Francisco Archives, along with the Chicago Archives, in the next few years, and it would start moving records “within the next few months.” In August 2026, NARA announced on its website that, before the facility’s closure, the San Francisco Archives records would be transferred to five different National Archives facilities around the United States. That transfer could begin as soon as this week, with planned transfers of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) records to the National Archives facility in Fort Worth. 

Multiple California agencies rely on records at the National Archives to conduct legally required research for state construction projects. For example, California State Parks and its contractors visited the San Francisco Archives over ten times during the refurbishment of the Angel Island barracks to research the circumstances surrounding the original construction of the facility. This research was essential to comply with state and local environmental laws and regulations. Pending State Parks projects on Angel Island and other locations will be impossible to complete if the records at the San Bruno facility are unavailable for any period of time and cost prohibitive if travel is required out of state. Researchers and professors from the University of California also rely on physical access to records at the San Bruno facility for their research and classwork. For example, Professor Andrew Leong of the University of California, Berkeley regularly sends his students to the National Archives to research Asian American history and language, accessing archival material only available in person and on site. 

In the lawsuit, Attorney Generals Bonta argues that the closure of the San Francisco Archives and the transfer of records from this facility is arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. To act unilaterally and without regard for the State, tribes, and other stakeholders is contrary to NARA’s mission to preserve public access to the Nation’s historical records. Moving records out of their communities of relevance places them out of reach for those who need the records the most. Less than 4% of records at National Archives nationwide are digitized. Some records are too delicate and fragile to digitize at all because of their age or composition, and to digitize them risks damaging or destroying them in the process. To prevent these harms, Attorney General Bonta seeks a court order vacating the decision to close the National Archives at San Francisco and prohibiting the transfer of records from this facility. 

Here is a copy of the lawsuit.