Supreme Court Orders Nixon: Release the Tapes

Eight justices, zero dissents, and a presidency that had sixteen days left to live. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Richard Nixon must surrender sixty-four White House tape recordings subpoenaed by Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, rejecting the president's claim that executive privilege placed him above the reach of criminal investigation. Chief Justice Warren Burger, a Nixon appointee, wrote the opinion himself. Nixon had installed a secret recording system in the Oval Office in 1971, taping thousands of hours of conversations without the knowledge of most visitors. The existence of the system became public in July 1973 when White House aide Alexander Butterfield casually mentioned it during Senate Watergate Committee testimony. From that moment forward, the tapes became the central battleground of the Watergate investigation, with Nixon fighting to keep them confidential and prosecutors arguing they contained evidence of criminal conspiracy. The Court acknowledged that executive privilege was constitutionally grounded but held that it was not absolute, particularly when weighed against the requirements of criminal justice. The opinion carefully avoided broad declarations, focusing narrowly on the balance between presidential confidentiality and the need for evidence in a specific criminal proceeding. Nixon's lawyers had argued that only the president himself could determine what fell under executive privilege, a claim the Court rejected completely. Nixon released the tapes within days. Among them was the "smoking gun" recording from June 23, 1972, just six days after the Watergate break-in, in which Nixon personally directed the CIA to obstruct the FBI's investigation. The recording destroyed what remained of his support in Congress. Republican leaders visited the White House to tell him he faced certain impeachment and conviction. Nixon announced his resignation on August 8, 1974, the only American president ever to leave office voluntarily.