Today in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered President Richard Nixon to hand over the White House tapes to a special prosecutor. Fast forward 50 years.
If Nixon had instead been facing today’s Supreme Court, the outcome might have been very different. Based on their rulings to date, the current Court might well have decided that it was perfectly ok for Nixon to cover up a crime intended to influence a presidential election.
Because, after all, he was doing it in his official capacity of president of the United States.