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In pursuing his independent course in the Senate, Ervin has deplored wiretapping by federal authorities but has shown little concern about it at state and local levels. He drew the wrath of Women's Liberationists by fighting the women's rights amendment to the Constitution, terming it the "unisex amendment" and contending that it would deprive women of such present legal benefits as exemption from the draft and freedom from prosecution for non-support of children. Despite his church-going constituency, he has fought attempts to permit prayer in public schools. The Constitution, he insists, has wisely erected a wall between church and state.
With little fanfare, Ervin has used his chairmanships to advance individual liberties. He inspired the revised Uniform Code of Military Justice, claiming that servicemen were subject to arbitrary discipline rather than justice. He pushed through a bill preventing any Indian tribal council from depriving an Indian of his constitutional rights. Ervin led a reform of the bail system, giving judges the power to release suspects too poor to pay bail but likely to appear for trial. He secured passage of a bill limiting the use of lie-detector tests in screening federal employees.
Ervin has exposed the widespread surveillance of antiwar groups, black militants and even Congressmen and Senators by the U.S. Army. Through committee hearings, he has attacked the compilation by various Government agencies of a wide range of personal computerized data on citizens. He has denounced the Nixon Administration's crime bill for Washington, D.C., which permits jailing people who are considered dangerous but have not been convicted of any crime, as "a blueprint for a police state."
Despite his blunt language when aroused, Ervin is a compassionate man who has conducted his many committee hearings with courtesy and respect for witnesses. The transcripts are replete with phrases like "I am very much impressed by your statement" or "I want to congratulate you on the very lucid manner in which you stated your views." That is partly why Ervin seems to be the ideal Senator to hold those potentially volatile hearings on the many ramifications of Watergate.
That reputation for fairness was tarnished two weeks ago, when Ervin was called away to attend the funeral of his youngest brother. In his absence, the investigation almost got out of hand. One of the convicted Watergate wiretappers, James W. McCord Jr., began making sensational allegations of White House involvement. He talked to the committee's staff investigator, Samuel Dash, 48, and to the committee itself. Dash, trying to apply pressure on the six other convicted conspirators to also talk, unwisely called a press conference to reveal that McCord had "promised to tell everything he knows."
Leaks. There were widespread leaks to newsmen about McCord's charges—all of which seemed to be based on hearsay and were so far unsubstantiated. One committee member, Connecticut Republican Lowell P. Weicker Jr., publicly demanded the resignation of Haldeman, the President's chief of staff. Weicker claimed that Haldeman "probably" knew about an operation of political sabotage against the Democrats that was far broader than the Watergate eavesdropping.