Archibald Cox - Post-Watergate Career

Post-Watergate Career

After Nixon's resignation, Cox became chairman of Common Cause, a major public-interest advocacy organization. He also became the founding chairman of the Health Effects Institute.

Cox also returned to Harvard Law School, where he taught constitutional law and a seminar on the First Amendment for many years. Before he had gone to Washington in 1973, he had a reputation as a tough and sometimes harsh teacher, but after his return, he had a reputation as a humorous, considerate, and gentle teacher who won the admiration and affectionate regard of his students. After he retired from Harvard, he received a special appointment to the faculty of Boston University School of Law. In 1974 he spent a year at the University of Cambridge as the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions.

Cox also continued his career as an expert appellate advocate. In 1976, Cox argued Buckley v. Valeo before the Supreme Court; at issue in this case was the constitutionality of post-Watergate legislation establishing public financing for presidential election campaigns. The Court upheld most of the provisions of the campaign finance law, giving Cox a significant victory. During 1977 and 1978, Cox also argued the case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke before the Court, defending the University of California at Davis medical school's affirmative action system of admissions against constitutional challenge. The Justices divided, with four voting to end the system as invalid under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 without any need to reference the constitutional issue, and four voting to uphold affirmative action as constitutional; Justice Lewis Powell cast the deciding vote, referencing the constitutional issue and holding that in some cases race could be deemed a valid factor in admissions to institutions of higher education.

In 1979, when a vacancy opened on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (which includes Cox's home state of Massachusetts), Senator Edward M. Kennedy proposed Cox for the vacancy. This proposal from the senior senator of the state most affected by the choice of judge ordinarily would have won Cox the appointment, but the administration of President Jimmy Carter resisted the choice since Cox had not supported Carter for President, and ultimately Cox was not appointed to the vacancy.

Among Professor Cox's many honors was his being made, in 1991, an honorary member of the Order of the Coif. Professor Cox also received the Paul Douglas Ethics in Government Award and the Thomas "Tip" O'Neill Citizenship Award. In 1997, Cox was the subject of a biography entitled Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation by Ken Gormley. The book focuses on Cox's long and distinguished career as a public servant.

On January 8, 2001, Cox was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton.

Cox's many books include The Warren Court: Constitutional Decisionmaking as an Instrument of Reform (Harvard University Press, 1969); The Role of the Supreme Court in American Government (Oxford University Press, 1976), Freedom of Expression (Harvard University Press, 1982), and The Court and the Constitution (Houghton Mifflin, 1987). He also wrote many leading law review articles and was co-editor of the leading casebook on labor law.