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Supreme Court pick's remarks on Nixon case open new front in confirmation fight
Background:
July 24, 1974: Nixon Must Surrender Tapes, Supreme Court Rules 8 To 0
Seung Min Kim Retweeted:
“... maybe Nixon was wrongly decided — heresy though it is to say so,” Kavanaugh said.
He’s suggested the opposite at other times — more here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/supreme-court-picks-remarks-on-nixon-case-open-new-front-in-confirmation-fight/2018/07/23/2ecd2a9a-8e99-11e8-b769-e3fff17f0689_story.html
Link to tweet
44 years ago today, #SCOTUS held by an 8-0 vote that, even though “executive privilege” protects the confidentiality of internal executive branch communications, it must give way to a subpoena issued in a criminal case.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/418/683 …
Nixon resigned three weeks later.
Link to tweet
Here's the correct link, not given in the original tweet:
Supreme Court pick’s remarks on Nixon case open new front in confirmation fight
By Seung Min Kim and Robert Barnes July 23 at 7:32 PM [link:[email protected]; [email protected]|Email the author]
Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh’s years-old remarks questioning the landmark ruling that forced President Richard M. Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes opened a new front in the battle over his confirmation, ensuring his views on executive power will square prominently in Senate hearings.
Included in the thousands of pages turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee this past weekend is a 1999 transcript of a panel discussion in which the future Supreme Court nominee opined whether the “tensions of the time led to an erroneous decision” in the case United States v. Nixon.
Although Kavanaugh has defended the 1974 ruling in other remarks, Democrats have seized on his skepticism from nearly two decades ago to build a key argument against the nominee: That he won’t be a sufficient check on the president who appointed him. ... “If Kavanaugh would’ve let Nixon off the hook, what is he willing to do for President Trump?” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked Monday.
....
On the Nixon decision, Kavanaugh’s allies rallied to his defense. They pointed out that he had praised the unanimous ruling in the case — which forced Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes and ultimately led to his resignation — in other venues, such as a law review article in 1998 and a speech in 2016. .... “But maybe Nixon was wrongly decided — heresy though it is to say so,” Kavanaugh said, according to a transcript of the discussion published in the January-February 1999 issue of the Washington Lawyer. “Nixon took away the power of the president to control information in the executive branch by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to order the president to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official. That was a huge step with implications to this day that most people do not appreciate sufficiently.”
....
Ann Marimow contributed to this report.
Seung Min Kim is a White House reporter for The Washington Post, covering the Trump administration through the lens of Capitol Hill. Before joining The Washington Post in 2018, she spent more than eight years at Politico, primarily covering the Senate and immigration policy. Follow https://twitter.com/seungminkim
Robert Barnes has been a Washington Post reporter and editor since 1987. He joined The Post to cover Maryland politics, and he has served in various editing positions, including metropolitan editor and national political editor. He has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006. Follow https://twitter.com/scotusreporter
By Seung Min Kim and Robert Barnes July 23 at 7:32 PM [link:[email protected]; [email protected]|Email the author]
Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh’s years-old remarks questioning the landmark ruling that forced President Richard M. Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes opened a new front in the battle over his confirmation, ensuring his views on executive power will square prominently in Senate hearings.
Included in the thousands of pages turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee this past weekend is a 1999 transcript of a panel discussion in which the future Supreme Court nominee opined whether the “tensions of the time led to an erroneous decision” in the case United States v. Nixon.
Although Kavanaugh has defended the 1974 ruling in other remarks, Democrats have seized on his skepticism from nearly two decades ago to build a key argument against the nominee: That he won’t be a sufficient check on the president who appointed him. ... “If Kavanaugh would’ve let Nixon off the hook, what is he willing to do for President Trump?” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked Monday.
....
On the Nixon decision, Kavanaugh’s allies rallied to his defense. They pointed out that he had praised the unanimous ruling in the case — which forced Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes and ultimately led to his resignation — in other venues, such as a law review article in 1998 and a speech in 2016. .... “But maybe Nixon was wrongly decided — heresy though it is to say so,” Kavanaugh said, according to a transcript of the discussion published in the January-February 1999 issue of the Washington Lawyer. “Nixon took away the power of the president to control information in the executive branch by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to order the president to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official. That was a huge step with implications to this day that most people do not appreciate sufficiently.”
....
Ann Marimow contributed to this report.
Seung Min Kim is a White House reporter for The Washington Post, covering the Trump administration through the lens of Capitol Hill. Before joining The Washington Post in 2018, she spent more than eight years at Politico, primarily covering the Senate and immigration policy. Follow https://twitter.com/seungminkim
Robert Barnes has been a Washington Post reporter and editor since 1987. He joined The Post to cover Maryland politics, and he has served in various editing positions, including metropolitan editor and national political editor. He has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006. Follow https://twitter.com/scotusreporter
