A federal grand jury investigating the Watergate cover-up subpoenaed tape recordings of Oval Office conversations. President Nixon refused, invoking an absolute executive privilege for presidential communications. A unanimous Supreme Court — with three Nixon appointees joining — rejected the claim. Chief Justice Burger recognized a qualified executive privilege rooted in separation of powers but held it must yield to the 'fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair administration of criminal justice.' Nixon complied, released the tapes, and resigned sixteen days later. The case stands for the proposition that no person, not even a sitting president, is above the judicial process — a principle immediately tested again in Clinton v. Jones and Trump v. United States.