Who Is Richard Nixon's Executive Privilege?

On July 17, 1972, following Richard Nixon’s election members of his staff were caught stealing from the Democratic National Committee office located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C.. This case went to court because the prosecutor wanted to prove that Nixon knew about the scandal and was covering up the incident. They hoped to gain the tapes and documents from the Oval Office. The question the United States Supreme Court was tasked with answering was if the President’s right to safeguard certain information, using his “Executive Privilege” confidentiality power, make them entirely immune from judicial review. The United States filed the case to the Federal Circuit Court. The Federal Circuit Court said yes that the issue of the case did fall under executive privilege, however the special prosecutor Leon Jaworski had sufficient evidence to obtain a subpoena for the tapes and documents. The United States then appealed the case to the Federal Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals upheld the original court's decision.
The case finally went to the Supreme Court and the court’s decision was unanimous, that neither separation of powers or the need for confidentiality of high-level communications, did not allow him to block the investigation. The Supreme Court stated that …show more content…
Eisenhower's administration, however the concept of executive privilege has been used since President George Washington was in office. Franklin’s article on “Executive Privilege” (2010) discusses the evolution of the principle of executive privilege and how there is no specific provision in the United States Constitution that gives executive privilege, However throughout the years the claim of executive privilege has implied through the structure of the separation of powers. In the article Franklin shows two other cases when executive privilege was used and what the outcome of the cases