The Supreme Court ruled that Henry Kissinger was not required under the Act to turn over transcripts of phone conversations he made as an adviser to President Richard Nixon.

In his opinion for the majority, Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist noted that once the documents had been withdrawn, "the agency has neither the custody or control necessary to enable it to withhold.

"[1] Kissinger had removed thousands of pages of the phone transcripts in the waning days of his term as Secretary of State.

The documents were first stored at Nelson Rockefeller's Kykuit estate in Westchester County, New York and were later given to the Library of Congress.

[1] The Supreme Court confirmed the decisions of the lower courts that Kissinger's transcripts when he was Richard Nixon's national security advisor did not fall under the purview of the Freedom of Information Act, nor would it apply to any other members of a President's executive office staff.