You Will Respect Our Authoritah
- This section again starts off with describing how the president's counsel told the District Court to butt out of an executive branch dispute.
- Nixon had argued that just because he recognized the authority granted to the special prosecutor by the attorney general, this shouldn't diminish the president's claim to executive privilege. They made the same argument to the Supreme Court.
- Since only the executive branch has the power to prosecute a case, then only the president can decide what evidence should be produced.
- Not so fast, says Burger. Just because the conflict may be an executive branch family argument, that doesn't mean the judicial branch has no authority. He cites a zillion cases to support his point.
- Basically, he says, this is a criminal case; the attorney general gave the special prosecutor the right to procure evidence. The chief executive says the special prosecutor has no authority to do so and contested the subpoena.
- While they totally get that this is a pretty unique situation, the Court believes that the special prosecutor does have standing to challenge executive privilege and that this presents a conflict that the Court is allowed to resolve.
- In other words, they're the deciders. End of story.