Executive Privilege
The Confidentiality of Presidential Advice
The Constitution contains no express grant of Executive privilege. However, beginning with President Washington, the Executive Branch has claimed that the separation of powers doctrine implies that the President possesses the power to withhold confidential information in the face of legislative and judicial demands. Politically speaking, it is rare for interbranch disputes over contested information to reach the courts for a judicial determination on the merits. Consequently, the existence of a presidential confidentiality privilege was not judicially established until the Watergate era, when the courts recognized that privilege as an inherent aspect of presidential power. In United States v. Nixon…
