David M. Dorsen

A bold new look at Watergate from a member of the Senate Watergate Committee who argues that the received wisdom about Nixon’s resignation is inaccurate. Written by assistant chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee, Reopening Watergate is an eye-opening reassessment of the Watergate scandal and an essential text for understanding this infamous political moment. With painstaking attention to detail and an intimate knowledge of the legal machinations behind the scenes, David M. Dorsen focuses on important aspects of the story of Watergate that have not received substantial—or, in some cases, any—publicity. The evidence amassed by Dorsen demonstrates that some of the most prominent people involved in pursuing Watergate had inappropriate ex parte contacts with Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, including Judge John J. Sirica, who presided over both the trial of the burglars and the trial of the leaders of the cover-up (John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman). Dorsen further uncovers that Jaworski made inappropriate transfers of information to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino and counsel John Doar. Dorsen lays out compelling evidence for the inept legal representation given to President Richard M. Nixon, especially by his special Watergate Counsel, James D. St. Clair. Reopening Watergate draws on overlooked and ignored sources, including interviews by the Nixon Presidential Library, a number of which have not been previously published, and the notes of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein housed at the University of Texas at Austin. Dorsen shows that with competent and conscientious lawyers and advisors in the last year of his presidency, Nixon might have been able to survive his full term as president, instead of resigning, mired in shame and scandal. With a foreword by John W. Dean, Nixon’s White House counsel and the most pivotal (and knowledgeable) person in the Watergate scandal, Reopening Watergate will be the standard resource on this historic moment in American politics for decades to come.

Former Assistant Chief Watergate Committee prosecutor David Dorsen has veered from his scholarly non-fiction works to delve into a humorous fictional account of Donald Trump. Dorsen said he felt compelled to pen what is a slightly burlesque treatment of the election and leadership of Donald Trump. Frank Serpico, retired NYC Police Detective and subject of the movie Serpico, praised the book as "a brilliant, witty, page-turning political parody that reads like the evening news." John Dean, former counsel to President Richard M. Nixon and a CNN contributor, calls the book "sorely needed entertainment" with "a convincing court proceeding in the era of Trump and with the inclusion of Trump." Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University, describes the book as "an engrossing, cleverly plotted tale."

Antonin Scalia was one of the most important, outspoken, and controversial Justices in the past century. His endorsements of originalism, which requires deciding cases as they would have been decided in 1789, and textualism, which limits judges in what they could consider in interpreting text, caused major changes in the way the Supreme Court decides cases. He was a leader in opposing abortion, the right to die, affirmative action, and mandated equality for gays and lesbians, and was for virtually untrammelled gun rights, political expenditures, and the imposition of the death penalty. However, he usually followed where his doctrine would take him, leading him to write many liberal opinions. A close friend of Scalia, David Dorsen explains the flawed judicial philosophy of one of the most important Supreme Court Justices of the past century.

Henry Friendly is frequently grouped with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, and Learned Hand as the best American jurists of the twentieth century. In this first, comprehensive biography of Friendly, David M. Dorsen opens a unique window onto how a judge of this caliber thinks and decides cases, and how Friendly lived his life. During his time on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1959–1986), Judge Friendly was revered as a conservative who exemplified the tradition of judicial restraint. But he demonstrated remarkable creativity in circumventing precedent and formulating new rules in multiple areas of the law. Henry Friendly, Greatest Judge of His Era describes the inner workings of Friendly’s chambers and his craftsmanship in writing opinions. His articles on habeas corpus, the Fourth Amendment, self-incrimination, and the reach of the state are still cited by the Supreme Court. Dorsen draws on extensive research, employing private memoranda between the judges and interviews with all fifty-one of Friendly’s law clerks—a veritable Who’s Who that includes Chief Justice John R. Roberts, Jr., six other federal judges, and seventeen professors at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and elsewhere. In his Foreword, Judge Richard Posner writes: “David Dorsen has produced the most illuminating, the most useful, judicial biography that I have ever read . . . We learn more about the American judiciary at its best than we can learn from any other . . . Some of what I’ve learned has already induced me to make certain changes in my judicial practice.”