KC Johnson

The autumn 1971 retirements, for health reasons, of Justices Hugo Black and John Harlan marked the third and fourth vacancies since Richard Nixon assumed the presidency in 1969, giving him an unprecedented opportunity to reshape the Supreme Court. Nixon’s immediate desire: tailor the appointments to his immediate political needs by naming an ethnic Catholic and a “strict constructionist” Southerner.

He outlined the first goal in this conversation with Attorney General John Mitchell; and the second in the conversation which immediately followed, with Secretary of State William Rogers.

President Nixon and John Mitchell

President Nixon: Now, on the other thing, John, on the second one, if it comes: can I urge you to try to examine everything to see if you can find a Catholic—a good Catholic?

John Mitchell: You want another [Justice William] Brennan?

President Nixon: No, Christ no! That’s what I mean. I mean—

Mitchell: You know, you went down—the Eisenhower administration went down that track before, you know . . .

President Nixon: And they got Brennan, I know. But you don’t have an honest Italian, do you?

Mitchell: [Chuckles.] God, they’re awful hard to find.

President Nixon: A Pole?

Mitchell: Uh . . .

President Nixon: No.

Mitchell: [California attorney and future Reagan AG] William French Smith—he isn’t one, is he?

President Nixon: Oh, Christ, no. He’s a Protestant.

Mitchell: WASP.

President Nixon: Rich and everything else.

Mitchell: All right.

President Nixon: Well, take a look at the Catholics, will you?

[Break.]

Mitchell: Do you think that’s a good line to take?

President Nixon: I do. Politically, we are going to gain a lot more from a Catholic. Look, the Protestants will just figure—if he’s a conservative, a Catholic conservative’s better than a Protestant conservative. We really need that—

Mitchell: Well, they’re more engrained, I’m sure.

President Nixon: Yeah. The point is, it’ll mean more to the Catholics—that’s my point—than it will to the Protestants. The Protestants expect to have things. The Catholics don’t.

Mitchell: When are you going to fill that Jewish seat on the Supreme Court?

President Nixon: Well, about . . . after I die. [Mitchell laughs.] You know and I know, there aren’t any.

Mitchell: There are no conservatives, I’ll say that.

President Nixon: Never.

——————————–

President Nixon and William Rogers

President Nixon: You know, on the Supreme Court thing, we’re thinking very strongly of [Virginia congressman Richard] Poff. Mainly because we think he would be pretty easy to confirm, in terms of, you know . . . You go to the South—it’s very difficult to go to a judge or to anybody else . . .

William Rogers: Most of ‘em are too old.

President Nixon: Are too old. Poff is only 43 or four or five or something like that. And he’s been apparently a very outstanding member. [Arkansas senator] John McClellan is very strong for him.

[Break.]

Rogers: Has he practiced [law]? I really don’t know his record.

President Nixon: Some. He practiced awhile and then ran for Congress. He’s had some—but no big practice. He’s just a small-town lawyer, basically.

[Break.]

President Nixon: Well, anyway, they’re looking him over.

The things I feel—I feel strongly on two subjects. First, I don’t want the guy to be a racist. But, you know, I don’t want a fellow who is going to go hog-wild on, you know—like, we’ve got to think about integration, [attacking] de facto segregation. Don’t want him to get hog-wild on this stuff. That would just be dynamite.

—————————————–

Poff was a typical product of the Virginia Byrd machine: he had signed the Southern Manifesto, which denounced the Brown decision, and then had voted against both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. His nomination thus threatened to restart the battles over Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell from the previous year.

In this conversation with aide Pat Buchanan, the President made clear that he welcomed the challenge.

President Nixon and Pat Buchanan

President Nixon: On the Poff thing, as you are probably aware—

Pat Buchanan: Mm-hmm.

President Nixon: Its problem is that he did not practice much law, you know.

Buchanan: Right.

President Nixon: [with Buchanan assenting] He has no—he just went right into Congress, so we’re trying to get . . . We don’t want to walk in there and have the damn people of the Senate turn him down for that reason. But there, we’re going to try to enlist [Brooklyn congressman and Judiciary Committee chairman] Manny Celler and a few others to say, well, that Judiciary Committee service [for] ten years is an equivalent, see?

Buchanan: Right, sir. Mm-hmm.

President Nixon: Right. Right. Right. But . . . it seems to be moving all right, but . . . I think, actually, that that’s bound to have a very salutary effect on our Southern friends, don’t you think?

Buchanan: Sure.

President Nixon: Substituting Poff for Black. God, it’s . . . Here you’ve got a strict constructionist conservative who signed the Southern Manifesto. And frankly, it’s fine. Let some of those that are—the libs vote against him on that.

Buchanan: That will really split the Democrats in the Senate, I would imagine.

President Nixon: Yeah. Right.

Buchanan: Right down the line on that thing.

President Nixon: Yeah. Yeah. I just hope to Christ we get the votes.

———————————-

But, just as he cemented his status as a frontrunner for the Court, Poff suddenly withdrew from contention. He told John Dean that he feared a Democratic filibuster against his nomination; and also worried that the publicity from a nomination would reveal that his 12-year-old son had been adopted. (The congressman and his wife hadn’t told the boy.)

In light of Poff’s recusal, the administration searched for other candidates to fulfill the President’s desire to name a Southerner. One possibility was Hershel Friday, an Arkansas attorney whose law firm had represented Little Rock in its unsuccessful attempt to block federally mandated desegregation of the city’s public schools. Another possibility was even more likely to split the Senate Democratic caucus: West Virginia senator Robert Byrd, a former member of the KKK who, like Poff, had opposed both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Nixon had another, self-inflicted, problem: his press secretary, Ron Ziegler, had stated that the President was looking for the “best man” for the vacancy. The outcry from feminists—a constituency courted by the administration, for political reasons—led the President to demand that his vetters come up with a possible female nominee (even though Nixon privately had no desire to appoint a woman to the Court). The Justice Department eventually focused on a California appeals court judge, Mildred Lillie, who, though a registered Democrat, had a strongly conservative (if less than distinguished) record.

The President surveyed the political situation surrounding the appointments with advisor Pat Buchanan, in these excerpts from an Oval Office conversation.

President Nixon and Pat Buchanan

President Nixon: As long as I’m sitting in the chair, there’s not going to be any Jew appointed to that Court—not because they’re Jewish, because there’s no Jew, Pat, that can be right on the criminal law issue.

Pat Buchanan: Yeah.

President Nixon: Have you ever known one that was?

Buchanan: No.

President Nixon: They’re all got hung up on civil rights. So you’re going to get two conservatives on this Court.

[Break.]

President Nixon: They assassinated one man—an honorable, decent man, Poff—because he happened to be a Southerner. Now, the President is concerned about they’re now going to attempt to assassinate another man [Robert Byrd], because he happens to be basically a conservative. It shows it isn’t just Southern—it’s conservative!

Buchanan: That’s right.

President Nixon: That’s what they’re after. Right?

Buchanan: It sure is. It sure is. As long as you got that Court, this is there. It scares the hell out of them—these two appointments.

President Nixon: They’re scared.

Buchanan: They’re saying you shouldn’t have the right to appoint these two to turn it around. This is just a historic struggle right now.

[Break.]

President Nixon: Yeah. They say that I should balance. Well, for Christ’s sakes, did they balance it?

Buchanan: That’s right. Yeah. They would have had it 9-0.

President Nixon: Did they balance it? For God’s sakes, what kind of people did Johnson appoint? Even Eisenhower! He appointed Warren, and he appointed Brennan.

Buchanan: Right.

President Nixon: And he appointed Potter Stewart, who is . . .

Buchanan: Wishy-washy.

President Nixon: Acey-duecey.

Buchanan: Yeah. He is, huh? [laughing]

President Nixon: Academically speaking. Not in a sexual way. But goddamnit, he goes out to Georgetown and votes wrong on this damn . . . But Potter will go with the four [Nixon appointees], I think. See, this gives [Warren] Burger the whip hand.

[Break.]

President Nixon: They’ve to the point where they’ve got to confirm a Southerner.

Buchanan: That’s right.

President Nixon: Don’t you agree?

Buchanan: I do.

President Nixon: One Southerner. We’re going to find one. Have to dig deep.

[Break.]

President Nixon: My point is this: if you were to poll the country, 60 percent of the country would say they don’t want a woman on the Court. But on the other hand, those people are not going to vote against you—

Buchanan: That’s right.

President Nixon: –if you put a woman on.

However, the 10 percent who feel strongly that one should be on there might switch.

Buchanan: That’s right.

President Nixon: What do you think?

Buchanan: You’re right on that. It’s like the gun control issue.

President Nixon: Right.

Buchanan: Fifty percent of the people want gun control, the other 10 percent will kill you.

President Nixon: That’s right.

Buchanan: But you know, you’ve got a point here. George McGovern said on Sunday on television, “My first choice would be a woman for the Supreme Court if I could make it. I promise you that.” And they’re really going to be in a box if you’ve got a woman that’s a strict constructionist, because I don’t see any way they can turn it down.

President Nixon: Shit, you know they’ll try!

Buchanan: Yeah. Well, I can’t see—

President Nixon: Because she’s been reversed. She’s been reversed by the California Supreme Court several times.

[Break.]

Buchanan: Is Byrd in on this deal, though? Does Byrd know we’re going there? Is he bothered by it, or what?

President Nixon: No, I don’t know. He brought up his own name to me.

Buchanan: He did?

President Nixon: No, but my point is: it’s a high honor to be considered for the Supreme Court. [Unclear.] We’re not hurting him. Byrd is . . . but his colleagues are going to kill him. Let us see how bad they are. Do you agree?

Buchanan: I agree. I agree 100 percent. Do you think they will come out and say anything, or will they say, “Well, wait and see”?

President Nixon: No, no, they’ve got to come out.

Buchanan: Yeah.

President Nixon: But I want to get the NAACP on this one. I want to get . . . I want to get . . . But mainly worry those sons of bitches in the Senate.

————————————-

According to custom, the American Bar Association rated all nominations for the Supreme Court, with rankings of well-qualified, qualified, and not qualified. The administration gave two names—Lillie and Friday—to the ABA for consideration. In this excerpt, Attorney General Mitchell provided the President with the results of the ABA vetting process. As Nixon made clear in his reaction to the news about the unqualified ranking for Lillie, he had never been serious about wanting to appoint a woman to the Court. But the ABA move got him off the hook politically, by allowing him to blame the Bar rather than his own sexism for his decision to appoint two males.

President Nixon and John Mitchell

John Mitchell: Now, I’ve talked to Judge [Lawrence] Walsh.

President Nixon: Yeah. How’s he coming out?

Mitchell: They have turned down both of them.

President Nixon: Good.

Mitchell: Which was to be expected—

President Nixon: They turned down Friday?

Mitchell: Yeah.

President Nixon: Well, I’ll be damned.

Mitchell: Well, it was a 6-6 vote.

President Nixon: Well, then, how about Lillie? What was it there?

Mitchell: Eleven to one.

President Nixon: What’d they just say—not qualified?

Mitchell: Yeah.

President Nixon: Great! Great.

Mitchell: And do you know what they said?

President Nixon: Great!

Mitchell: [continuing] That she was probably as good as any woman that could be considered by the Court.

President Nixon: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mitchell: This statement was made up there.

President Nixon: Well, are they going to put that out?

Mitchell: No, no. They’re not going to put anything out.

President Nixon: Well, we’ll put it out.

Mitchell: We’ll get it out.

President Nixon: Get that out. Yeah.

Mitchell: At the time and place when we want to.

President Nixon: Well, we’ve got to do it, I think, before we make the damned announcement. I don’t know, I . . .

Mitchell: Well, there’ll probably be a leak up there.

President Nixon: All right; good.

Mitchell: There’ll probably be a leak up there; I don’t think they can help it.

President Nixon: But they said that she was as good as any woman?

Mitchell: That’s what [Lawrence] Walsh told me—

President Nixon: That’s nice.

Mitchell: –the statements were in there.

President Nixon: That’s nice. Well—

Mitchell: There just wasn’t a qualified one.

——————————————-

With Lillie and Friday eliminated, and Byrd a non-starter, Nixon quickly settled on Virginian Lewis Powell, former president of the ABA—who he expected would be a reliably conservative vote. For the second vacancy, he continued to push the idea of naming a Catholic, settling on New York judge William Mulligan, former dean of the Fordham Law School. Mitchell was cool on Mulligan, however, because he considered him a mediocre jurist—a line of attack that administration opponents had used, to devastating effect, in torpedoing the nomination of G. Harrold Carswell the previous year.

President Nixon and John Mitchell

President Nixon: I think if it’s Powell, Mulligan should be the other one. That’s my view. Rather than to go for Powell and [William French] Smith. Because Powell and Smith has the disadvantage of being two corporate lawyers, and I think Mulligan just sounds a little better.

John Mitchell: Well, of course they’ve criticized the judge route before [in the Haynsworth and Carswell nominations]. And you will . . .

You’re politically right. There’s no question about that. Because of the Irish aspect of it, not necessarily the location—

President Nixon: Well, we’re knocking out Lillie, you see, who is a Catholic.

Mitchell: Mm-hmm.

President Nixon: And I’d just as soon get another one.

Mitchell: Yeah.

President Nixon: Well, anyway, that’s sort of my feeling now, but we can talk about it. OK.

—————————————-

A bit later, the President and the Attorney General continued their discussion of the ramifications from the ABA’s actions. Nixon made clear that he wanted to obtain maximum public relations benefit from the ABA’s rejection of Lillie.

President Nixon and John Mitchell

President Nixon: Isn’t it interesting—why do you think they pissed on [Hershel] Friday, of all things? Gee whiz—

John Mitchell: Civil rights.

President Nixon: I’ll be damned.

Mitchell: Mm-hmm.

President Nixon: Really?!

Mitchell: Yeah. That’s what Ed Walsh told me.

President Nixon: Well, they’d do the same on [Lewis] Powell, then, won’t they?

Mitchell: [laughing] They’re not going to have—nobody’s going to have a chance.

President Nixon: You mean: I will have named him, huh?

Mitchell: You will have named him, and . . .

President Nixon: Yeah.

Mitchell: And it won’t be this pressures, you know, from all over the country—

President Nixon: Yeah.

Mitchell: From law [unclear]—

President Nixon: The civil rights? I’ll be goddamned.

Mitchell: Mm-hmm.

President Nixon: Well, they can—

Mitchell: Yeah. Ed Walsh admitted to me that that was it.

President Nixon: Mm-hmm. [Pauses.] Well, the woman thing—that’s got to get out, you know. Some way . . . I mean, naturally—the vote will get out, won’t it? Everything else has leaked out of there [the ABA]. Now, believe me, we’re going to leak this out if they don’t.

Mitchell: You can rest assured we’ll get it out one way or the other.

President Nixon: Right. And get—but . . .

Mitchell: And Walsh knows it’s coming.

President Nixon: Yeah.

Mitchell: He’s been well-programmed—

President Nixon: And the 11-to-1. And I think the 11-to-1 is brilliant, because it’s a jury that way, see? It’s a stacked jury. All men. Huh?

Mitchell: Absolutely.

President Nixon: And not one [woman] qualified—she’s the best qualified woman, but she’s not qualified for the Supreme Court. Jesus, that’s great. That’s great.

Mitchell: We just have to program it, and . . .

President Nixon: Mm-hmm.

Mitchell: Of course, we can’t go too far until you get through tomorrow night, because otherwise, then, the surprise of the operation will be destroyed.

President Nixon: That’s right. That’s right.

Mitchell: But we’re working on the letters, and so forth. We’ll have it pretty well set up.

[Break.]

Mitchell: Do you want that to come from over here, or . . .

President Nixon: No. What? The . . .

Mitchell: The background information on these people.

President Nixon: Oh, yeah. Yeah. You pick up the background dope the best you can.

Mitchell: Right.

President Nixon: I mean, a strong sales talk on each.

Mitchell: Right.

President Nixon: Particularly where they—I mean, if they were top in their class, or near the top, say so. Things of that sort, you know.

Mitchell: Yeah.

President Nixon: You know, the kind of thing that shows they’re scholars, and all that bullshit. [Mitchell laughs heartily.] OK.

Mitchell: Right.

President Nixon: All right.

Mitchell: Right.

———————————

As momentum built toward announcing both selections, Mulligan’s chances faded, and Nixon started focusing on Tennessee senator Howard Baker. But Dick Moore, special counsel to the President, pushed the idea of Assistant Attorney General William Rehnquist, a former aide to Barry Goldwater and a figure known for both his legal brilliance and his extremely conservative views.

President Nixon and Dick Moore

President Nixon: Dick?

Dick Moore: Yes.

President Nixon: We are—we still don’t know what’s going to happen on the . . .

Moore: Right.

President Nixon: The Bar has, incidentally—that’s all worked out. That played right into our hands.

Moore: Oh, good.

President Nixon: Exactly what we wanted.

Moore: Good.

President Nixon: You know, it’s an interesting thing: they—this for your very private information, we’re going to get this leaked—they voted against her [Judge Lillie] 11-1.

Moore: Uh-huh?

President Nixon: But they said that of all the women in the country, she was probably the best qualified that they could think of. But she was not qualified to be in the Court.

How do you like that?

Moore: [gleefully] That is, of course—what could be more important, or better than that?

President Nixon: Mitchell has got to—of course, I . . .

Moore: How do you get that out?

President Nixon: You’ve got that information, now, and you can . . .

Moore: Oh.

President Nixon: But that, he says—I says, “For Christ sakes, let’s get it out.” So that’ll . . . We’re going to really, really ream ‘em on that.

Moore: Oh, that’s superb. That—

President Nixon: Not qualified.

Now, incidentally, the one thing I want to know—because we’re going to have to move fast, and I can’t consult anybody on it—is on the Rehnquist one . . . In case I don’t get the Baker [pick] (Baker is the first choice—

Moore: Right.

President Nixon: –and we’ll know on him within an hour or two), but in case we don’t get that: on Rehnquist, you checked—as far as [John] Erlichman, now—

Moore: Yes.

President Nixon: You say he is for it, or not?

Moore: Very enthusiastically for it, I think I can say.

President Nixon: He says—he’d just throw him right up there. Now, understand, we’re not going to clear these with the Bar.

Moore: I understand—it was my impression, Mr. President, that he was Erlichman’s number one recommendation.

President Nixon: OK. Good. Well, that’s good. Between you and him—don’t go any further.

Moore: Right. Uh-huh.

President Nixon: Because it’s going to be damn hard for those people to turn him down.

——————————-

After the Moore conversation, the President returned to Mitchell, intrigued about the Rehnquist possibility. (But, he lamented losing the opportunity to name a Catholic—both Baker and Rehnquist, the two finalists for the position, were Protestants.) Baker, meanwhile, was in Tennessee, having given no firm answer to the President’s offer.

President Nixon and John Mitchell

President Nixon: Let me ask you this: I just got Dick in here, Dick Moore—

John Mitchell: Yeah.

President Nixon: —a minute ago. And I may reevaluate. He comes down very hard on your man Rehnquist. He just thinks that, you know, second in his class at Stanford, was clerk to Robert Jackson, and then from your account apparently conservative.

Mitchell: Absolutely.

President Nixon: And would make a brilliant justice. Would you agree?

Mitchell: Yes, sir.

President Nixon: What would the country say about him? He sure is qualified, isn’t he?

Mitchell: I would believe so. I don’t think there’s any question about it. It’s an opinion expressed by Ed Walsh when we were talking about this. From his point of view, he certainly would.

[Break.]

President Nixon: Well, people all think so highly of the guy—he must have a helluva lot on the ball.

Mitchell: Oh, he’s got a tremendous legal mind, Mr. President, there isn’t any question about it. And just as solid as can be.

President Nixon: Yeah.

Mitchell: [with the President assenting] He’s made a tremendous impression upon the judiciary around here, and people on the Hill, and the ones in the Bar he’s dealt with.

[Break.]

President Nixon: Incidentally, what is Rehnquist? I suppose he’s a damn Protestant?

Mitchell: I’m sure of that.

President Nixon: That’s too bad.

Mitchell: He’s about as WASPish as WASPish can be.

President Nixon: Yeah, that’s too damn bad. Tell him to change his religion.

Mitchell: [laughing] All right, I’ll get him baptized this afternoon.

President Nixon: Well, baptized and castrated—no, they don’t do that. I mean, they circumci—no, that’s the Jews. Well, anyway, whatever he is, get him changed.

—————————–

Finally, Nixon decided on Rehnquist—though not after Mitchell reported that Baker, in a last-minute decision, had finally concluded that he wanted the appointment.

President Nixon and John Mitchell

John Mitchell: Good morning, Mr. President.

President Nixon: Did you work it out?

Mitchell: [Howard] Baker wants to go, and I told him that you still had the options open, and I would refer to you his availability.

President Nixon: Well, he wants to go now, huh?

Mitchell: Yes, sir. Mm-hmm.

President Nixon: Well, goddamnit, you couldn’t talk him out of it, huh?

Mitchell: Well, not on the basis in which we’ve been pushing him into it. But I went through the same routine, and I think you have an option if you want to go the other way. [Pauses; the President sighs.] I don’t think that it’s going to disturb him too much if you use your options in another direction.

President Nixon: Mm-hmm.

Mitchell: If you feel stronger in that other direction.

President Nixon: [Pauses for 17 seconds.] Have you got any . . . have you got anything . . . This will decide me a lot: could you take five minutes off and then call me back? What was his record in law school and so forth? Do you know anything about that?

Mitchell: No, but I presume we might be able to—

President Nixon: I need to know.

Mitchell: —dig it out.

President Nixon: I need to know. I mean, I want to know, really, whether he was just a playboy or whether he buckled down and did things. Because I’m preparing my remarks now and this all revolves around that—that these are guys that are qualified, you see?

[Break.]

President Nixon: [on Rehnquist] Phi Beta Kappa, first in his class—

Mitchell: That’s right.

President Nixon: —law clerk to one of the great judges of this century, and practiced law, is a lawyer’s lawyer, and so forth.

Damn it, I really think we ought to go that way.

Mitchell: All right; well, I’ll turn Baker off.

[Break; Mitchell calls Baker to tell him of the President’s decision, and then calls the President back.]

President Nixon: I would call [Leon] Jaworski and [Lawrence] Walsh [of the ABA], and say we just have appreciated enormously what they have done, that what the President has done now—he’s just said, “The hell—we just can’t submit these people to ‘em and have them beaten down for non-legal reasons.” But that he has selected two men that he knows the Bar, without even asking, will get well-qualified from the Bar, in both cases. And then tell ‘em what it is. Fair enough?

Mitchell: Yes, sir, will do.

President Nixon: Now don’t tell either—particularly don’t tell Walsh—I don’t know Jaworski—but don’t tell him before 6:30 or so.

Mitchell: I won’t—

President Nixon: The reason being is that they have staffs, and they may tell ‘em, and the staff will leak. You know they’ve got these Jews that work (Walsh has) that work for him. And the Jews leak, John, you know that.

Mitchell: [laughing] I sure do.

President Nixon: OK?

Mitchell: No, I will talk to him—

President Nixon: Yeah.

Mitchell: —just before the event.

President Nixon: I’m very pleased. Have you told Rehnquist yet?

Mitchell: Not yet, but I’m sure that he will be more than pleased.

President Nixon: Pleased?! Christ, he’ll probably drop his teeth!

Mitchell: I would expect so.

President Nixon: Yeah. I don’t want to see him. I think it’s not . . . I don’t think I should.

Mitchell: No necessity for it.

President Nixon: And I haven’t seen [Lewis] Powell. I wouldn’t know him if I saw him. I may have met him but I don’t know him.

Mitchell: Well, he’s a very distinguished-looking gentleman.

President Nixon: Yeah. And I think really it’s a good move. We’re going to knock their goddamn blocks off, and fight it through.

You say that Powell made a speech against Martin Luther King. That’s the only thing you can find on his record that’s bad, huh?

Mitchell: That’s correct.

President Nixon: What kind of a speech was it, too? Was it rabid, or—

Mitchell: Oh, no, no, no, no. it’s hard to do with that argument that’s prevailed here for the last four or five years in civil disobedience situations—

President Nixon: I see. Well, that’s all right. That’s a legitimate thing. I said many of the same things.

Mitchell: Yes. And so—

President Nixon: Well, I think it’s been a fine job, John.

—————————————–

Nixon went ahead with the announcement of Powell and Rehnquist to replace Black and Harlan. Time captured the attitude in the Capitol: “In the new scale of Nixonian surprises, it registered only as a medium astonishment. Yet the President’s nominations to fill the two vacant Supreme Court seats were delivered last week in a shrewd performance that left his critics, for the moment, in contortions of simultaneous dismay and relief . . . The bench will have been heavily tipped to the right by the Nixon bloc. It is now virtually a Nixon Court.”