United States v. Nixon
United States v. Nixon was a landmark Supreme Court case that addressed the limits of executive privilege during a significant political scandal in American history. The case arose from the Watergate affair, where President Richard M. Nixon faced allegations of involvement in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. As investigators sought access to Nixon's taped conversations, he refused to comply, leading to a legal battle initiated by special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who aimed to secure the release of the tapes. Nixon's refusal to release the tapes was rooted in his claim to executive privilege, a principle that allows the president to withhold certain information from other branches of government.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to release the tapes, asserting that executive privilege is not absolute and is conditional upon the needs of the judicial process. The ruling was significant as it demonstrated the Court's role in checking presidential power, even when it involved one of Nixon's own appointees. Ultimately, the tapes included crucial evidence that directly contributed to Nixon's resignation from office just weeks after the ruling. This case set a precedent regarding the accountability of the presidency and the balance of power within the U.S. government.
United States v. Nixon
Date: July 24, 1974
Citation: 418 U.S. 683
Issue: Executive privilege
Significance: The Supreme Court’s ruling was key to causing President Richard M. Nixon to resign from office.
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger wrote the unanimous opinion ordering the release of tapes possibly damaging to President Richard M. Nixon. Justice William H. Rehnquist declined to participate, saying he had been a former Justice Department official under Nixon, but the other Nixon appointees, Justices Harry A. Blackmun and Lewis F. Powell, Jr., as well as Burger, participated. As important as this decision was to Nixon, three of his own appointees ruled against him.
In response to questions regarding the burglary of the Democratic Party National Headquarters in the Watergate building, Nixon had contradicted his aides as to his level of involvement in the scandal. When it was revealed that Nixon routinely taped conversations in his office, the Watergate investigators used presidential appointment logs to isolate tapes that they wished to hear. Nixon refused to release the tapes, and the presumably independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox sued to force Nixon to produce them. Nixon fired Cox, but his own two top Justice Department officials resigned before he could force them to remove Cox from office. Newly appointed special prosecutor Leon Jaworski renewed the pursuit for the tapes, and the Supreme Court ruled that they must be released.
Included among the tapes was a conversation so damning that it has been called the “smoking gun” that led to Nixon’s resignation just three weeks later. In his opinion, Burger emphasized that the Court must be deferential to the presidency, but this ruling, by concluding that executive privilege was conditional, nonetheless limited the previous presumption that executive privilege was absolute.