By Eric Weiner, NPR Online
President Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to coin the phrase “executive privilege,” but not the first to invoke its principle: namely, that a president has the right to withhold certain information from Congress, the courts or anyone else–even when faced with a subpoena. Executive privilege, though, is a murky and mysterious concept. Here, an attempt to clarify the murk.
Does the Constitution allow for executive privilege?
Nowhere does the Constitution mention the term or the concept of executive privilege. The belief that it does, the late legal historian Raoul Berger once said, is one of the greatest “constitutional myths.”So how can a president simply withhold information if the Constitution doesn’t give him the power to do so?
Presidents have argued that executive privilege is a principle implied in the constitutionally mandated separation of powers. In order to do their job, presidents contend, they need candid advice from their aides — and aides simply won’t be willing to give such advice if they know they might be called to testify, under oath, before a congressional committee or in some other forum.
(Original Article)