THE
Summer Daily
Vol. LXXXIII, No. 59-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, August 10, 1973 Ten Cents Twelve Pages
panel sues
President over tapes
Asks court to force Nixon answer
Three who survived
Two wounded Cambodian children rest with an unidentified man at a Phnom Penh hospital yesterday. They were injured
Monday when U. S. B-52s accidently bombed their village located just south of the capital. Nearly 150 people were killed
in the mishap. (See related story Page 3)
enalties for victimless
cr1 e hitIby govtreport
WASHINGTON (T) - The Senate Water-
gate committee sued "defendant Richard
M. Nixon" individually and in his capacity
as President yesterday, asking a federal
court to enforce its subpoena for White
House tape recordings and documents re-
14ting to the Watergate investigation.
The committee also asked the court to
force a response from the President within
20 days, seeking to obtain the material
before the vacationing panel resumes its
hearings next month.
"THE DEFENDANT President's refusal
and failure to make available said elec-
tronic tapes and other materials cannot be
excused or justified by resort to any presi-
dential power, prerogative or privilege,"
said the suit.
"If there be any doctrine of presidential
power, prerogative or privilege that pro-
tects materials . . .such a doctrine does
not extend to the protection of materials
'relating to alleged criminal acts ."
The committee asked the court to rule:
* Its subpoenas wre legally issued and
lawfully served on the President "and
must therefore be responded to and com-
plied with . .."
. Nixon may not refuse to comply "on
the basis of any claim of separation of
powers, executive privilege, presidential
prerogative or otherwise."
. That the President in revealing and
permitting others to reveal the subject
matters of some of the materials "has
breached the confidentiality of those ma-
terials and has waived any claim" to ap-
plying separation of powers, executive
privilege or presidential prerogative.
IT ALSO ASKED, if necessary, that the
court issue an injunction directing the
President to make the materials available.
Thse committee said Nixon's continuing
refusal is "irreparably injuring the work
of the select committee and the interests
of the United States on whose behalf and in
whose name the select committee sues."
Nixon is preparing to speak out publicly
on the Watergate scandal, perhaps by the
middle of next week.
THE SUIT is the second filed against
Nixon over the tape recordings and docu-
ments. Special Watergateprosecutor Ar-
chihald Cox filed a similar action. The
President's lawyer Tuesday replied in
court that any attempt to enforce a sub-
poena "would be an unsupportable viola-
tion of the constitutional doctrine of sepa-
ration of powers." Oral arguments are
scheduled for Aug. 22.
Nixon's lawyers argued in the Cox suit
that "no court has ever attempted to en-
force a subpoena directed against the
President of the United States," nor has
any department or agency head been held
in contempt for refusing to produce infor-
mation the President wanted withheld.
The constitutional issue involved appears
certain to reach the U. S. Supreme Court.
SIX LAWYERS for the Watergate com-
See SENATORS, Page 10
WASHINGTON (A) - A federal crime
commission yesterday recommended an
end to jail sentences for such victimless
crimes as marijuana use, prostitution and
pornography.
Atty. Gen. Elliot Richardson refused to
endorse the proposals, but called the com-
mission report a "document of uncommon
importance."
THE RECOMMENDATIONS were con-
tained in a report prepared by the Na-
tional Commission on Criminal Justice
Standards and Goals, a 22-member group
initiated by former Atty. Gen. Jphn
Mitchell. The report developed from a
two-year study financed by a $1.75 million
federal grant.
Discussing what the chairman, former
Delaware Gov. Russell Peterson called
the "victimless crimes"-marijuana use,
gambling, pornography, prostitution and
private sexual acts between consenting
adults-the commission said: "These
crimes place a heavy and unwelcome
burden on law enforcement resources."
Stressing that it is "not necessarily rec-
ommending decriminalization," the com-
mission urged all states to. review laws
against those activities. "At a minimum,"
it said, "each state should remove incar-
ceration as a penalty."
AMONG OTHER key recommendations,
the commission said:
-All states should outlaw the private
possession of handguns within 10 years and
confiscate those now in civilian hands.
Collectors should be allowed to keep in-
operative guns.
-Plea bargaining, the practice of allow-
ing a suspect to plead guilty in exchange
for a light sentence, should be abolished
within five years.
Richardson