Word: sirica
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...Many of Sirica's colleagues on benches around the country seem to agree with him (see box page 15). More broadly, his handling of the Watergate cases is widely seen as a vindication of the legal system at a time of great stress. Chief Judge David Bazelon, who heads the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which has sometimes reversed Sirica rulings, contends that "Sirica became enraged not because he believed he was being lied to personally, but because he thought the court was being lied to. He has humility, which is not a universal virtue...
Exposure of wrongdoing is, of course, the first requisite in achieving justice?and Sirica deserves the prime credit for taking those vital initial steps. Whether justice and law in the end will prevail still depends on the investigation by Prosecutor Jaworski and his determined staff, the outcome of numerous individual trials, and what may still be learned?and done about?the President's actions in the many Watergate-related improprieties. Sirica will continue to play a role in that process since he intends to remain an active judge on the bench even after he retires as chief judge in March...
...legal profession that has, however belatedly and at first by a narrow edge, finally become most aroused about the transgressions against law and the Constitution that make up the dismal scandal. While the profession has moved forcefully through such men as Sirica, Cox and Richardson to acquit itself, it is still on trial, and whether justice will finally prevail is still in doubt...
...prosecutors, judges, jurors?and, indeed, the vast public jury ?try to emulate the nonpartisan determination and faith of Judge John Sirica, who insists with simple sincerity that "if the truth just comes out, we'll all be all right...
...Sirica used his same rugged courtroom common sense to cope with the challenge of a historic constitutional clash between branches of Government. Even a President must respond to subpoenas for evidence in criminal cases, Sirica ruled. Judges, not the President, must ultimately decide whether claims of Executive privilege to withhold such evidence are valid. Presidents, in short, are not above the law. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld him; and in the end, Nixon gave up, partly because he feared that the Supreme Court would also see it Sirica...