Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a272_9p6b.pdf
Page Number: 3

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2022) 

3 

Statement of KAVANAUGH, J. 

many would be unwilling to express except privately.”  Id., 
at 708.  By protecting the confidentiality of those internal 
communications,  the  Presidential  communications  privi-
lege facilitates candid advice and deliberations, and it leads
to more informed and better Presidential decisionmaking. 
The Nixon Court noted, by way of historical example, that
the Constitutional Convention was conducted “in complete 
privacy” and that the records of the Convention remained 
confidential for more than 30 years.  Id., at 705, n. 15.  As 
was true at the Constitutional Convention, the Presidential 
communications privilege cannot fulfill its critical constitu-
tional function unless Presidents and their advisers can be 
confident in the present and future confidentiality of their
advice.  If Presidents  and  their  advisers  thought  that  the 
privilege’s  protections  would  terminate  at  the  end  of  the
Presidency and that their privileged communications could 
be disclosed when the President left office (or were subject 
to the absolute control of a subsequent President who could 
be  a  political  opponent  of  a  former  President),  the  conse-
quences for the Presidency would be severe.  Without suffi-
cient  assurances  of  continuing  confidentiality,  Presidents 
and  their  advisers  would  be  chilled  from  engaging  in  the 
full and frank deliberations upon which effective discharge 
of the President’s duties depends. 

To be clear, to say that a former President can invoke the
privilege  for  Presidential  communications  that  occurred
during his Presidency does not mean that the privilege is 
absolute  or  cannot  be  overcome.   The  tests  set  forth  in 
Nixon,  418  U. S.,  at  713,  and  Senate  Select  Committee  on 
Presidential  Campaign  Activities  v.  Nixon,  498  F. 2d  725, 
731 (CADC 1974) (en banc), may apply to a former Presi-
dent’s  privilege  claim  as  they  do  to  a  current  President’s 
privilege  claim.    Moreover,  it  could  be  argued  that  the 
strength of a privilege claim should diminish to some extent
as the years pass after a former President’s term in office. 
In all events, the Nixon and Senate Select Committee tests