The Nation - News from April 13, 1988

A federal appeals court ruled that Richard M. Nixon lost his automatic right to shield his papers from public view when he resigned as President. The ruling by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia invalidates a Justice Department legal opinion that directed the National Archives to honor all of Nixon’s executive privilege claims. Although 3 1/2 million pages of Nixon documents have been opened to researchers, Nixon and his lawyers have been able to withhold 150,000 documents by claiming they involved executive privilege, private political associations, personal property and personal privilege. “Ronald Reagan, not Richard Nixon is the constitutional superior of the archivist,” the ruling said.