Supreme Court Rules Against Nixon Impoundments

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Train v. City of New York, 420 U.S. 35 (1975), that the President lacks constitutional authority to withhold funds that Congress has appropriated. The decision rejected Nixon’s claimed impoundment power and established binding precedent that every subsequent impoundment case during the Nixon era had affirmed — that the executive cannot unilaterally refuse to disburse congressionally directed funds.