Definition of Executive Privilege
Executive privilege, based on constitutional doctrine of separation of powers, empts the executive from disclosure requirements applicable to the ordinary citizen or organization where such exemption is necessary to the discharge of highly important executive responsibilities involved in maintaining governmental operations, and extends not only to military and diplomatic secrets but also to documents integral to an appropriate exercise of the executive’s domestic decisional and policy making functions, that is, those documents reflecting the frank expression necessary in intra-govemmental advisory and deliberative communications. Black v. Sheraton Corp. of America, D.C.D.C., 371 F.Supp. 97, 100. However, need for confidentiality of high level communications cannot, without more, sustain an absolute unqualified presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances. U. S. v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 3106, 3107, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039. See also Privilege.
That's the definition of Executive Privilege in Black's Law Dictionary 6th Edition. Courtesy of Cekhukum.com.