Watch the Presentation of our 2024 Research Award Winner

The Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy granted its 2024 Award for Excellence in Oversight Research to “Common Law Executive Privilege(s),” by Jonathan Shaub, Norman & Carole Harned Associate Professor of Law & Public Policy at University of Kentucky’s Rosenberg College of Law.

Chosen by a selection committee composed of law and political science oversight scholars and veteran practitioners, the award-winning paper emerged from a competitive field of excellent candidate papers. The selection committee found that Professor Shaub’s paper offered a well-sourced, careful analysis of common law evidentiary privileges and two key 1974 cases, United States v. Nixon and Senate Select Committee v. Nixon, in which the Supreme Court ordered the Nixon Administration to turn over recorded Oval Office conversations to a special criminal prosecutor but denied them to the Senate Watergate Committee, in part because tapes had already been provided to a House committee conducting impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon.

Fifty years after the Supreme Court issued its twin Watergate decisions, the paper unpacks their facts, reasoning, and legal basis; contends that the executive branch has misinterpreted the cases to try to deny information to Congress; and highlights issues that go to the heart of our system of checks and balances.

Find out more about our yearly research award: https://levin-center.org/research-award/