Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 593 › Conversation 593-005

Nixon & Kendall on Supreme Court appointments and Judicial workload

Friday, October 15, 1971 · 9:09 AM–9:10 AM ET · Oval Office · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Kendall, Donald McI.Conversation593-005 on Tape 593 (tape position 00:13:15–00:15:09)StartFriday, October 15, 1971 at 9:09 AMEndFriday, October 15, 1971 at 9:10 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 593-005 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Donald Kendall discuss the strategic selection of new Supreme Court justices, emphasizing the need for younger candidates who can handle heavy workloads. They critique the inefficiency and aging composition of the current Court, specifically citing the performance of Justices Black, Harlan, and others. The conversation reflects Nixon’s desire to appoint energetic jurists capable of reversing the backlog issues inherited from the Warren era.

Supreme Court appointments
Judicial workload
Warren Burger
Age and performance
Judicial philosophy

Audio

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Position in tape: 00:13:15 – 00:15:09

part A, 13:13

593a_i.mp3

593a_ii.mp3

593b.mp3

593b_i.mp3

593b_ii.mp3

NARA Description

On October 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Donald McI. Kendall met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:09 am to 9:10 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 593-005 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 593-5

Date: October 15, 1971
Time: 9:09 am - 9:10 am
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with Donald M. Kendall.

[See Conversation No. 11-97]

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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The president, of course, is going to get accolades for this, and then all spotlights are going to be focused on him.

On the court, that's right.

Of course, he already sees himself as the dean of some law school, and all the other mental machinations he's gone through.

Except he doesn't like the lights.

That's exactly what I said to him, I'll let you...

You're ridiculous.

You've got 50% of what you're striving for and what you want, and you're providing an olamonum because of the one justice, a woman.

And of course, he's a workhorse.

He's got workhorse problems up there, and he's going to help solve them.

I grant you that.

And he understands that facet of it better than anybody else, because that's what Warren did to ruin that court.

provide that workload in that court that they should never have.

And Warren Burger has changed that substantially, but they still consider too many cases.

Well, and he's got some guys that aren't smoking their load, isn't there?

That's absolutely right.

And he's got some of these guys that are 67 years old.

He had his problem compounded.

That's what I pointed out to him with Black and Harlan.

They could not carry their load.

And he points out that White and...

Hunter Stewart and Brennan are so stupid that when he can't assign some of the cases to them, he doesn't know what they're going to write.

Yeah, well, another thing, too, you have to understand, though, a man over 65, business knows this, everybody else, frankly, can't work for 12-hour days anymore.

It's got that Markner man of 55 who works 12-hour days.

We know that, right?

I agree with that.

Also recorded on October 15, 1971

011-096 8:43 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:43 am and 9:09 am.
593-001 8:43 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:43 am and 9:09 am.
593-002 8:43 AM · 25 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:43 am and 9:09 am.
593-003 8:43 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:43 am and 9:09 am.
593-004 8:43 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:43 am and 9:09 am.
011-097 9:09 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Donald McI. Kendall talked on the telephone from 9:09 am to 9:10 am.
593-006 9:10 AM · 29 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Henry A. Kissinger, and Peter G. Peterson met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:10 am to 9:36 am.
593-007 9:37 AM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Manolo Sanchez, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:37 am to 9:52 am.

All 21 conversations from October 15, 1971 →

Nixon phone call with Burger on Supreme Court appointments October 21, 1971 · 11 min
Nixon alone in his EOB office on Supreme Court nominations and Lewis Powell October 21, 1971 · 9 min
Nixon, Moore & Haldeman on Supreme Court appointments and William H. Rehnquist October 21, 1971 · 29 min
Nixon, Haldeman & Woods on Supreme Court nominations and Judicial philosophy October 21, 1971 · 12 min
Nixon, Moore & Woods on Supreme Court nominations and Judicial philosophy October 21, 1971 · 28 min
Nixon alone in his EOB office on Lewis F. Powell Jr. October 21, 1971 · 3 min

Cite this conversation

Conversation 593-005, October 15, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/593-005 (accessed November 13, 2026).