A self–proclaimed political outsider, Elizabeth “Liz” Holtzman defeated a 50–year House veteran and powerful chairman to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. During her four terms in the House, Holtzman earned national prominence as an active member of the Judiciary Committee during the Richard M. Nixon impeachment inquiry and as a cofounder of the Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues.

From her seat on the Judiciary Committee, Holtzman gained notoriety through her participation in the Nixon impeachment hearings as a freshman Representative. Of her role in reaching a verdict, Holtzman said, “It’s the most serious decision I’ll ever have to make.”⁸ She later aggressively questioned President Gerald R. Ford about his pardon of Nixon and defended the government’s claim over the Nixon tapes and papers.⁹ In 1973, Holtzman filed suit to halt American military action in Cambodia, on the grounds that it had never been approved by Congress. A district court ruled the Cambodian invasion unconstitutional, but the court of appeals reversed the decision.

Like many of her Democratic colleagues, Holtzman challenged military spending levels and weapons programs in the post–Vietnam era. Holtzman praised the Jimmy Carter administration’s decision not to pursue a neutron bomb. “I think the people of the world have a right not to see life jeopardized by nuclear holocaust, and that means not only Russian life and American life but all life on this earth,” she said in a floor speech. “The development of the neutron bomb and the deployment of countless unnecessary nuclear weapons will simply take us further down the road to such a holocaust.”

On January 11, 2006, The Nation published her essay calling for the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush for authorizing "the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." She expanded on her arguments for impeaching President Bush in a 2006 book coauthored with Cynthia L. Cooper, The impeachment of George W. Bush: a practical guide for concerned citizens. In June 2008, Holtzman published a commentary on the action of U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in introducing articles of impeachment against President Bush on June 9, 2008.

In 2012 Cheating Justice: How Bush and Cheney Attacked the Rule of Law and Plotted to Avoid Prosecution? and What We Can Do about It was published and was coauthored by Holtzman and Cynthia Cooper.

Additional Resources:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/opinions/lessons-of-watergate-holtzman-opinion/index.html- May 2017, "We forget Watergate at Our Peril" By Elizabeth Holtzman 

https://www.thenation.com/authors/elizabeth-holtzman/- Articles by Elizabeth Holtzman, published by the Nation 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/105686.Elizabeth_Holtzman- Books by Elizabeth Holtzman 

http://history.house.gov/People/Detail/15213- Extended Biography