Nixon v. Fitzgerald

Decided June 24, 1982. Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 79-1738 · 457 U.S. 731 (1982) · Cited 972 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–4.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Butz v. Economou · 438 U.S. 478 (1978)
• Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · 403 U.S. 388 (1971)
• Imbler v. Pachtman · 424 U.S. 409 (1976)
• Spalding v. Vilas · 161 U.S. 483 (1896)
• Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · 337 U.S. 541 (1949)
• United States v. Nixon · 418 U.S. 683 (1974)
• Scheuer v. Rhodes · 416 U.S. 232 (1974)
• Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer · 343 U.S. 579 (1952)
• Stump v. Sparkman · 435 U.S. 349 (1978)
• Pierson v. Ray · 386 U.S. 547 (1967)
• Gravel v. United States · 408 U.S. 606 (1972)
• Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman · 455 U.S. 363 (1982)
• Tenney v. Brandhove · 341 U.S. 367 (1951)
• Davis v. Passman · 442 U.S. 228 (1979)
• Bradley v. Fisher · 80 U.S. 335 (1872)
• Larson v. Domestic and Foreign Commerce Corp. · 337 U.S. 682 (1949)
• Nixon v. Administrator of General Services · 433 U.S. 425 (1977)
• Barr v. Matteo · 360 U.S. 564 (1959)
• United States v. Brewster · 408 U.S. 501 (1972)
• O'Shea v. Littleton · 414 U.S. 488 (1974)
• Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay · 437 U.S. 463 (1978)
• Aetna Life Insurance v. Haworth · 300 U.S. 227 (1937)
• Carlson v. Green · 446 U.S. 14 (1980)
• Abney v. United States · 431 U.S. 651 (1977)
• Dalehite v. United States · 346 U.S. 15 (1953)
• Dennis v. Sparks · 449 U.S. 24 (1980)
• Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Assn. · 453 U.S. 1 (1981)
• Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan · 293 U.S. 388 (1935)
• McGautha v. California · 402 U.S. 183 (1971)
• Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman Steamship Corp. · 333 U.S. 103 (1948)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Clinton v. Jones · 520 U.S. 681 (1997)
• Trump v. United States · 603 U.S. 593 (2024)
• Trump v. Vance · 591 U.S. 786 (2020)
• Mitchell v. Forsyth · 472 U.S. 511 (1985)
• Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc. · 506 U.S. 139 (1993)
• Digital Equipment Corp. v. Desktop Direct, Inc. · 511 U.S. 863 (1994)
• Will v. Hallock · 546 U.S. 345 (2006)
• Crawford-El v. Britton · 523 U.S. 574 (1998)
• Cheney v. United States District Court for District of Columbia · 542 U.S. 367 (2004)
• Dole Food Co. v. Patrickson · 538 U.S. 468 (2003)
• Osborn v. Haley · 549 U.S. 225 (2007)
• Hohn v. United States · 524 U.S. 236 (1998)
• Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Hyatt · 587 U.S. 230 (2019)
• Forrester v. White · 484 U.S. 219 (1988)
• Franklin v. Massachusetts · 505 U.S. 788 (1992)
• United States v. Stanley · 483 U.S. 669 (1987)
• Lauro Lines S.R.L. v. Chasser · 490 U.S. 495 (1989)
• Anderson v. Creighton · 483 U.S. 635 (1987)
• Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida · 517 U.S. 44 (1996)
• Behrens v. Pelletier · 516 U.S. 299 (1996)
• Cleavinger v. Saxner · 474 U.S. 193 (1985)
• Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp. · 485 U.S. 271 (1988)
• Woodford v. Garceau · 538 U.S. 202 (2003)
• United States v. Rodgers · 461 U.S. 677 (1983)
• McDonald v. Smith · 472 U.S. 479 (1985)
• Republic of Austria v. Altmann · 541 U.S. 677 (2004)
• United States v. James · 478 U.S. 597 (1986)
• Johnson v. Fankell · 520 U.S. 911 (1997)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).