Charles Alan Wright; Law Expert Who Aided Nixon

Charles Alan Wright, a constitutional law expert who represented President Nixon during the Watergate scandal and argued against the release of the incriminating Oval Office audiotapes, died Friday. He was 72.

The author of the enormously influential 54-volume legal reference, Federal Practice and Procedure, Wright had been hospitalized in Austin, Texas, since mid-June. He died of complications from lung surgery, said his daughter, Henrietta Wright of Dallas.

Wright’s arguments against releasing the Oval Office tapes in district and federal courts earned him broad national attention as a constitutional authority and accolades for the precision of his courtroom arguments.

They also brought the pressure of fighting an unpopular battle, and Wright was assailed with abusive mail and critical newspaper articles.

“I cannot be happy--nobody could be happy--with diminishment of a reputation as an independent legal scholar,” Wright said in 1973. “But if tarnishing my reputation is the price for saving the presidency . . . then so be it.

“I’m not bitter. I have no second thoughts about my role in the tapes case.”

The Supreme Court in 1974 accepted the argument that executive privilege was a valid concept but ruled 8-0 that Nixon was not exempt from subpoenas for evidence needed in court cases.

The court ordered Nixon to surrender the tapes, which contained damaging evidence of White House involvement in covering up the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate. Nixon resigned two weeks later.

Wright was teaching at the University of Texas Law School when he was summoned by Nixon for legal assistance on a busing issue, Henrietta Wright said.

Wright was president of the American Law Institute, the nation’s leading organization on legal reform, and held several positions with the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.

Wright was also a member of the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States. His appointment by Chief Justice William Rehnquist marked the fifth time that Wright served as a member of this body. His previous appointments were by Chief Justices Earl Warren and Warren Burger.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg some years ago likened Wright to a “colossus,” calling Federal Practice and Procedure “the bible for federal judges.”

Constitutional law expert Arthur Miller told Lawyers Weekly USA that Wright was one of the most formidable lawyers he ever faced in court.

“When he argues, you get the feeling that you’re up against Moses. . . . Wright has an almost divine status, an enormous self-assuredness backed up by an enormously imposing physical presence--his size, his voice, just who he is.”

Raised in Philadelphia, Wright graduated from Yale Law School and was teaching at the University of Minnesota when he was recruited by the University of Texas Law School in 1955.

Wright moved to part-time teaching at the university in 1997 but was still active in the classroom at the time of his illness. Recently, he had been assisting the university in its appeal of a federal court ruling that effectively dismantled affirmative action at public universities in Texas.

He also was helping the Episcopal Diocese examine the issues of single-sex marriages and gays in the priesthood, his daughter said.

Raised in Philadelphia, Wright graduated from Yale Law School and taught at the University of Minnesota before moving to Texas in 1955.