Scene IX. Washington, D.C. a newsroom.

[Enter Walter Cronkite.]
Cronkite. Good evening. The Supreme Court today ruled
unanimously against President
Richard Nixon when it returned
a nine to zero decision that forced
the White House to turn over subpoenaed 5
documents and tapes to the Special
Prosecutor. The historic decision
was climaxed in the courtroom by the reading
of Chief Justice Burger. A hushed silence fell
upon the court as he ruled that the 10
President must comply with the subpoena
and that no man is above the law.
This comes as a severe blow to the
President’s defense. The Special Prosecutor
will have all the tapes that the President 15
has here-to-fore denied him. It is expected
that the House Judiciary Committee
will now get the material it wants and
will begin open debate on the Impeachment
of the President next Wednesday. 20
CBS News will be there to cover it, live.
President Nixon returned from his
foreign travels today. He was met at
the airport by several thousand supporters.
The Midwestern drought is now in its tenth 25
week, destroying crops and ruining cattle,
plunging the breadbasket of this land
into natural disaster. Prices are
expected to rise. Speaking of inflation,
last month it went up one point two percent, 30
the largest monthly rise since statistics
have been kept. A grocery basket that cost
twenty dollars three years ago now costs
twenty-four dollars and fifteen cents.
And now here’s Eric Severied 35
with some thoughts on today’s historic
Supreme Court decision.
[Enter Eric Severied.]
Severied. Thank you, Walter. Today’s historic
Supreme Court decision is something
Richard M. Nixon will not look 40
lovingly to. It is his disaster.
The drought that plagues our West is nothing
compared to the blow which the Judges of
our land have decreed. Mr. Nixon must
now give up all those tapes he cherishes. 45
An what’s on those tapes will undoubtedly
be damaging to him. But for democracy,
for freedom, for human decency
we will finally know, once and for all,
the true extent of the President’s 50
involvement in Watergate.
Cronkite. And that’s the way it is, Wednesday,
July Twenty-fourth, Nineteen Seventy-four.
[Exeunt.]