James D. St. Clair was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lawyer, and practiced law for many years in Boston with the firm of Hale and Dorr.

He first gained notice while assisting Joseph Welch

Joseph Welch

Joseph Nye Welch was the head counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist activities, an investigation known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings.- Early life :Welch was born in Primghar, Iowa on...

 in the Army-McCarthy Hearings

Army-McCarthy Hearings

The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy...

 of 1954. (It was initially planned that he would share that role with Fred Fisher

Fred Fisher (lawyer)

Frederick George Fisher, Jr., was an American lawyer who first entered the public eye in connection with Senator Joseph McCarthy.-Biography:...

, and it was Fisher whom Joseph McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy

Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...

 attacked, eliciting Welch's "Have you left no sense of decency?" speech).

Much later in this his career he was Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

's counsel, most notably before the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Nixon

United States v. Nixon

United States v. Nixon, , was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision. It was a unanimous 8-0 ruling involving President Richard Nixon and was important to the late stages of the Watergate scandal. It is considered a crucial precedent limiting the power of any U.S. president.Chief Justice...

, where he said,

The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

, only four years at a time, and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land except the court of impeachment

Impeachment

Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....

.

He also represented Nixon before the House Judiciary Committee as they considered impeachment charges against him.

He was born and raised in Illinois, graduating from Moline High School, Moline, IL, in 1937, and studying at Augustana College, the University of Illinois and Harvard Law School.

External links

• James D. St. Clair at discoveringjustice.org