Nixon v. Administrator of General Services
| Nixon v. General Services Administration | |
|---|---|
|
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| Argued April 20, 1977 Reargued October 11, 1977 Decided June 28, 1977 |
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| Full case name | Nixon v. Administrator of General Services |
| Citations | 433 U.S. 425 (more) |
| Holding | |
| Congress has the power to pass an act directing the seizure and disposition, within the control of the Executive Branch, of the papers and tapes of a former president. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Brennan, joined by Stewart, Marshall, Stevens (in full); White (in part); Blackmun (in part); Powell (in part) |
| Concurrence | Stevens |
| Concurrence | White (in part) |
| Concurrence | Blackmun (in part) |
| Concurrence | Powell (in part) |
| Dissent | Burger, joined by Rehnquist |
Nixon v. General Services Administration, 433 U.S 425 (1977), is a landmark court case concerning the principle of presidential privilege and whether the public is allowed to view a President’s “confidential documents”. The Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1974, ordered that the Administrator of General Services obtain President Richard Nixon’s presidential papers and tape recordings. In addition, the Act further ordered that government archivists seize these materials. These archivists would preserve the material deemed historic and return to former President Nixon the materials deemed as private. Furthermore, this Act stated that material that was preserved could be used in judicial hearings and proceedings. Immediately after this Act was enacted, Richard Nixon filed a lawsuit in a federal district court claiming that the Act violated the principle of separation of powers, the principle of presidential privilege, Nixon’s personal privacy, his First Amendment right of association, and further asserted that it amounted to a constitutionally prohibited Bill of Attainder.
Historically, all presidential papers were considered the personal property of the president. Some took them at the end of their terms while others destroyed them. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to make them available to the public when he donated them to the National Archives in 1939, as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, but did so voluntarily.
This case was argued a few years after the Watergate scandal had broken out and the President was compelled to resign in the face of the impeachment process against Richard Nixon. The former President objected to the seizure of documents from the Nixon Administration, as he did not want to further tarnish the public’s already negative perception of him as a corrupt and scheming politician. Given that he was not liable to criminal prosecution, as he had been pardoned, Nixon’s concern for his reputation appears to be the primary reason that he did not want his private documents to be inspected by historical archivists and made available to the public. The forty two million pages of documents and eight hundred and eighty tape recordings produced during his presidency would reveal critical information about Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal, his real opinions on a wide range of issues, and further perpetuate his image as a paranoid and secretive President. These are some of the underlying personal motives as to why Richard Nixon chose to file a lawsuit against the Administrator of General Services the day after President Ford signed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act into law.
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