Presidential and top officials' right to resist some subpoenas
Constitutional law of the United States
Overview
Articles
Amendments
History
Judicial review
Principles
Separation of powers
Individual rights
Rule of law
Federalism
Republicanism
Equal footing
Strict scrutiny
Government structure
Legislative branch
Executive branch
Judicial branch
State government
Local government
Individual rights
Freedom of religion
Freedom of speech
Freedom of the press
Freedom of assembly
Right to petition
Freedom of association
Right to keep and bear arms
Right to trial by jury
Criminal procedural rights
Right to privacy
Freedom from slavery
Due process
Equal protection
Citizenship
Voting rights
Right to candidacy
Comprehensible rules
Theory
Living Constitution
Originalism
Substantive due process
Political process theory
Purposivism
Textualism
Strict constructionism
Common good constitutionalism
v
t
e
Executive privilege is the right of the president of the United States and other members of the executive branch to maintain confidential communications under certain circumstances within the executive branch and to resist some subpoenas and other oversight by the legislative and judicial branches of government in pursuit of particular information or personnel relating to those confidential communications. The right comes into effect when revealing the information would impair governmental functions. Neither executive privilege nor the oversight power of Congress is explicitly mentioned in the United States Constitution.[1] However, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that executive privilege and congressional oversight each are a consequence of the doctrine of the separation of powers, derived from the supremacy of each branch in its area of constitutional activity.[2]
The Supreme Court confirmed the legitimacy of this doctrine in United States v. Nixon in the context of a subpoena emanating from the judiciary instead of emanating from Congress.[3] The Court held that there is a qualified privilege, which once invoked, creates a presumption of privilege, and the party seeking the documents must then make a "sufficient showing" that the "presidential material" is "essential to the justice of the case". Chief Justice Warren Burger further stated that executive privilege would most effectively apply when the oversight of the executive would impair that branch's national security concerns.[3] Regarding requests from Congress (instead of from the courts) for executive branch information, as of a 2014 study by the Congressional Research Service,[4] only two federal court cases had addressed the merits of executive privilege in such a context, and neither of those cases reached the Supreme Court.[5]
In addition to which branch of government is requesting the information, another characteristic of executive privilege is whether it involves a "presidential communications privilege" or instead a "deliberative process privilege" or some other type of privilege.[4] The deliberative process privilege is often considered to be rooted in common law. In contrast, the presidential communications privilege is often considered rooted in the separation of powers, thus making the deliberative process privilege less difficult to overcome.[4][6] Generally speaking, presidents, congresses and courts have historically tended to sidestep open confrontations through compromise and mutual deference because of previous practice and precedents regarding the exercise of executive privilege.[4]
^Cox, Archibald. "Executive Privilege", University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Volume 122, page 1384 (1974).
^Chief Justice Burger, writing for the majority in US v. Nixon, noted: "Whatever the nature of the privilege of confidentiality of Presidential communications in the exercise of Art. II powers, the privilege can be said to derive from the supremacy of each branch within its own assigned area of constitutional duties. Certain powers and privileges flow from the nature of enumerated powers; the protection of the confidentiality of Presidential communications has similar constitutional underpinnings. United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974) (Supreme Court opinion at FindLaw)
^ abUnited States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974) (Supreme Court opinion at FindLaw)
^ abcdGarvey, Todd. Presidential Claims of Executive Privilege: History, Law, Practice, and Recent Developments, Congressional Research Service, p. 1 (2014).
^Senate Select Comm. on Presidential Campaign Activities v. Nixon, 498 F.2d 725 (D.C. Cir. 1974); Comm. on the Judiciary v. Miers, 558 F. Supp. 2d 53 (D.D.C. 2008)
^Narayan, S. "Proper Assertion of the Deliberative Process Principle". fordham.edu. p. 6. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
and 22 Related for: Executive privilege information
Executiveprivilege is the right of the president of the United States and other members of the executive branch to maintain confidential communications...
Washington's action created the precedent for privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executiveprivilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed...
admissible as evidence in court Privilege (canon law) Privilege (law), a permission granted by law or other rules Executiveprivilege, the claim by the President...
Trump invoked executiveprivilege, the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to reject White House's assertion of executiveprivilege and approve...
concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executiveprivilege, which...
Deliberative process privilege is the common-law principle that the internal processes of the executive branch of a government are immune from normal disclosure...
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal...
kinds of officers), United States v. Nixon (executiveprivilege), and Bowsher v. Synar (control of executive functions) have flexed the doctrine's reach...
other administration officials. In the wake of Nixon's heavy use of executiveprivilege to block investigations of his actions, Ford was scrupulous in minimizing...
Congress. At Holder's request, President Barack Obama had invoked executiveprivilege for the first time in his presidency in order to withhold documents...
evidence to support the claimed assertion of privilege. And, because the claimed assertion of executiveprivilege is unproven, Defendant cannot avoid prosecution...
material were placed under a temporary "protective assertion" of executiveprivilege by then-President Trump on May 8, 2019, preventing the material from...
two reasons forward: first, that the Constitutional principle of executiveprivilege extends to the tapes and citing the separation of powers and checks...
went to trial after Judge Nichols dismissed Bannon's defense of executiveprivilege and other defenses and was found guilty on two counts. The Justice...
were honored, several were not. The Trump administration asserted executiveprivilege, which led to several lawsuits, including In re: Don McGahn. The...
issue executive orders and enter into treaties with foreign nations. The executive branch uses inherent powers to establish executiveprivilege, which...
executive-privilege claim". The Washington Post. Mallin, Alexander; Faulders, Katherine (July 11, 2022). "Trump never invoked executiveprivilege over...
request to assert executiveprivilege to stop NARA from providing these documents. Nevertheless, Trump writes NARA asserting privilege over about forty...
covered by executiveprivilege: "Whenever a privilege is asserted, even one expressed in the constitution, such as the speech and debate privilege, it is...
as did the Senate, but Nixon refused to release them, citing his executiveprivilege as president, and ordered Cox to drop his subpoena. Cox refused....
rejects Obama's executiveprivilege claim over Fast and Furious records". Politico. "Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Executive DirectorMichael...