Nixon's Legal Legacy: White House Papers and the Constitution

After President Richard M. Nixon resigned his office under threat of impeachment, Congress seized his White House papers for the continuing Watergate trials and investigations. With some justification, Nixon vigorously argued that the records were his private property, and thus began an extraordinary legal campaign to reclaim them. Nixon's protracted legal fight has not only caused the overturning of the historical tradition of private ownership of presidential records but has generated an important legacy of constitutional law concerning the presidential prerogatives of the separation of powers and executive privilege. Although Nixon lost his case for ownership before the Supreme Court, he has since managed to block the National Archives and Records Administration from releasing the majority of his White House records. Nixon's continuing and highly effective lawsuits against the National Archives raises the question of who really controls the White House materials of the Nixon presidency.