(3 of 11)
Assuming that Nixon does comply with an adverse decision, it seems unlikely that the tapes would reach the House in time for its impeachment debate. Democratic leaders are already reconciled to having the Judiciary Committee proceed with its vote on articles of impeachment without any such added evidence. The full House, too, probably will act without it. But senior Democrats who will be running the proceeding are confident that if the tapes must be yielded for the criminal trial of Nixon's former aides, the legal right of the Senate to acquire them for the trial of the President will be overpowering—and they will almost certainly be available by then.
However uncertain the final impact on Nixon's fate, the Supreme Court hearing with its anticipation of a high-stakes legal showdown gripped Washington. The event drew a mixed crowd of Washington's legal elite, some Watergate figures and an eager assemblage of college students, law instructors, office workers and tourists. Many people waited outside the imposing marble structure through two warm nights to get a crack at the 390 seats reserved for the public. Most were to be available only on a rotational basis, their occupants moving on after five minutes. When the doors opened at 9 a.m., the crowd jammed into the ornate, high-ceilinged chamber, squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder on benches or knee-to-knee on metal folding chairs. H.R. Haldeman, a defendant in the September trial, walked in beside Assistant Special Prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste and found himself sitting beside Jaworski's wife in the VIP section.
The audience rose in silence as all nine black-robed Justices filed solemnly from behind maroon draperies and took their black leather swivel chairs behind their long, semi-hexagonal bench. From Chief Justice Warren Burger, sitting with white-haired dignity at the center, the Justices were positioned on his flanks in order of descending seniority: William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron R. White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry A. Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell Jr., William H. Rehnquist. After Burger briefly announced an action in an unrelated case, Rehnquist, a recent Justice Department colleague of two of the Watergate cover-up defendants, left the chamber. He did not take part in the Nixon case. "I feel like a starting player injured just before the big game," he has said. From their elevated platform, the unsmiling Justices imposingly dominated the scene.
As the trio of lawyers who argued the case took turns at the lectern, each was rendered somewhat less than life-size by the hugeness of the marble-columned chamber. Some of the tension eased as the arguments progressed. Occasionally a Justice would exchange asides with a colleague. The opposing attorneys shunned oratorical flights, spoke in calm tones that at times almost understated their cases. Yet each was distinctive.
Appearing first in opposing the President's attempt to overturn Judge Sirica's ruling, Special Prosecutor Jaworski spoke softly in the muted twang of a Texas gentleman. Almost immediately he was thrown off stride by technical questions from the unusually attentive and loquacious Justices. Although this was his fourth Supreme Court appearance, Jaworski even forgot the procedural reality that he was representing Sirica