Judge Freezes Order for Nixon Tapes

A federal judge has frozen an order requiring the National Archives to return “forthwith” more than 800 hours of Richard M. Nixon’s White House tapes to the former president’s estate.

U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson had ordered the return of all “personal or private” conversations on the tapes, which archivists say amount to 819 hours scattered throughout 3,700 hours of tapes recorded during Nixon’s presidential years.

Government lawyers asked Johnson for a stay of the decision, saying compliance with the March 31 ruling would cause irreparable harm to the tapes before an appeal could be heard. National Archives officials have protested that the original tapes are too fragile to be cut and spliced to extract the personal conversations. As a consequence, they said they might be forced to surrender all 3,700 hours to the Nixon estate.

Attorneys for the Nixon estate contend that the tapes can withstand the surgery and opposed a stay. They said it would take months to carry out Johnson’s March 31 ruling despite the “forthwith” requirement.

Archives officials would first have to acquire the proper equipment, hire a staff and make other preparations. “Compliance with the court’s order,” the Nixon lawyers argued, “clearly will not involve instant, overnight cutting of the original tapes.”

In an order issued this week, Johnson granted a limited stay, barring “only the actual removal of personal and private conversations from the tapes.” She said archivist John W. Carlin remains under court order “to make all preparations necessary for excising the conversations.”

The stay will remain in effect until the government has exhausted its appeals. The Justice Department has filed notice of appeal, but a spokesman said Friday that the matter is still awaiting a decision by the solicitor general’s office.