Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Nixon due money for papers, court rules Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 16:10:35 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD Nixon due money for papers, court rules \BY James Vicini \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY Former President Nixon is entitled to compensation for his Watergate tapes and other White House documents that remain in the government's control, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. The court, by a 3-0 vote, overturned a federal judge's ruling last year that the papers and tapes belong to the American people and that the government does not owe Mr. Nixon any money for taking them. Mr. Nixon resigned from office on Aug. 9, 1974, to avoid impeachment hearings in the Watergate scandal and was granted a pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. He sued in 1980 seeking compensation on the grounds that the materials were taken unconstitutionally. At issue in the court battle is a 1974 law adopted by Congress that severely restricted Mr. Nixon's rights to his presidential papers. The dispute sparked three separate lawsuits and 18 years of legal fighting. Concerned that Mr. Nixon might destroy material needed for the Watergate investigation, Congress approved the law authorizing the government to retain "complete possession and control" of all his presidential materials. Much of the materials, including the famous Watergate tapes that recorded conversations Mr. Nixon had in the Oval Office, has been stored in the National Archives and has been made available to the public over the years. The appeals court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn to determine what it described as the difficult question of the amount of compensation due Mr. Nixon. Judge Harry Edwards, writing for the appeals court, said Mr. Nixon - like every president before him - had a definite property interest in his presidential papers. "Upon reviewing the long and unbroken history relating to the use, control and disposition of presidential papers, we are convinced that Mr. Nixon had a well-grounded expectation of ownership," he wrote in the 36-page opinion. Mr. Nixon's attorneys argued that presidents from George Washington on considered the papers accumulated during their term in office to be their personal property. Since the 1974 law effectively destroyed the most essential attributes of ownerhip, it constituted an illegal taking of the property requiring just compensation, Judge Edwards said. He said the law not only allowed the government to take the materials, but also severely restricted Mr. Nixon's access to them, his right to exclude others and his right to dispose of the materials. Judge Edwards was joined by Judge Ruth Ginsburg, both of whom were named to the appeals court by President Carter. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was appointed by President Bush, issued a separate opinion concurring in the judgment. A Justice Department spokesman would not comment on the ruling or say whether the government would appeal. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM