contain the work of all the Justices. Chief Justice Burger delivered the decision from the bench and the very fact that he was doing so meant that knowledgeable onlookers realized the decision must be unanimous. The Court's opinion found that the courts could indeed intervene on the matter and that Special Counsel Jaworski had proven a "sufficient likelihood that each of the tapes contains conversations relevant to the offenses charged in the indictment". While the Court acknowledged that the principle of executive privilege did exist, the Court would also directly reject President Nixon's claim to an "absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances." The Court held that a claim of Presidential privilege as to materials subpoenaed for use in a criminal trial cannot override the needs of the judicial process if that claim is based, not on the ground that military or diplomatic secrets are implicated, but merely on the ground of a generalized interest in confidentiality. It concluded that "when the ground for asserting of the privilege as to subpoenaed materials, sought for use in a criminal trial, is based solely on the generalized interest in confidentiality as distinguished from the situations whereat maybe based upon military secret or diplomatic secrets, it cannot prevail over the fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair administration of criminal justice." Nixon was then ordered to deliver the subpoenaed materials to the District Court. Nixon resigned sixteen days later, on August 9, 1974. References Further reading External links 1974 in United States case law United States executive privilege case law United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court Watergate scandal 20th-century American trials Trials of political people United States Supreme Court cases