The Supreme Court does not ordinarily hear cases during its annual summer recess, but the summer of 1974 was not ordinary. The Watergate crisis had entered its final stages. Congress and the special prosecutor’s office both jockeyed to obtain President Richard Nixon’s collection of White House tapes, which contained evidence of his role in the coverup. Nixon vigorously fought special prosecutor Leon Jaworski’s subpoena by citing national security and executive privilege.

In a unanimous 8-0 decision, the court rejected Nixon’s efforts to thwart the subpoena. “Neither the doctrine of separation of powers nor the generalized need for confidentiality of high-level communications ... can sustain an absolute, unqualified presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances,” Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote for the court. The ruling came to symbolize the triumph of the rule of law and the principle that no man is above it. Nixon resigned two weeks later.

Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, has articulated a different interpretation of those events. In a 1999 interview, he argued that the landmark Watergate tapes case, United States v. Nixon, may have been “wrongly decided” due to the “tension of the time.”

This suggestion is in line with Kavanaugh’s general views on the executive branch’s constitutional authority. From the White House’s ability to fire federal officials to whether its occupant can face lawsuits while in office, Kavanaugh has articulated an extraordinarily deferential stance on presidential powers and privileges. His ability to put those views into practice as a Supreme Court justice would be a boon to future presidents—and to the man who nominated him for the post.

Kavanaugh made the remarks about Nixon during a roundtable discussion that was covered by Washington Lawyer magazine. The article, which was among thousands of pages of documents submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, quotes his views on the case at length: