United States vs. Nixon was a case brought to the Supreme Court in 1974, questioning whether or not President Nixon was involved in the Watergate Scandal. The Supreme Court declared he was not above the law and required him to hand over tapes they believe had evidence on the event. President Nixon, instead of handing over the tapes, resigned and his Vice President, Gerald Ford was signed into office. The case of United States versus Nixon was important in that it reaffirmed checks and balances and defined the powers of Executive Privilege.
The Watergate Scandal eventually led to President Nixon’s resignation from office. Before his re-election, a group aptly coined CREEP, illegally broke into the Democratic National Committee office to steal information to use in the upcoming election. Nixon tried to cover up the incident by denying his involvement in the crime. His top aides, including his Vice President Spiro Agnew, resigned to avoid giving anything away that would connect Nixon to the Watergate Scandal. The only piece of evidence seemed to be Nixon’s recordings of all conversations had by him in the White House; however, Nixon refused to give up the tapes, claiming Executive Privilege. Soon,
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President Nixon claimed Executive Privilege to stop the Supreme Court from obtaining the tapes that would convict Nixon of being a conspirator to the Watergate Scandal. Nixon claimed the president of the United States has a right to keep things a secret from the general public. The Supreme Court concluded that Nixon did not have that right in this matter as it was a purely selfish reason and was not for the better of any person other than himself, forcing Nixon to hand over the tapes. This helped define the President's power when regarding Executive Privilege- there must be a reason that the president is withholding the information and it must be to benefit citizens of the United
Nixon was already being pressure to release tapes of his conversation in the White House but he refused to give them up (Fienberg 74). Nixon proposed an alternative on October 19, by giving the court a summary
In front of a grand jury, many of President Nixon’s assistants testified that Nixon taped secretly every conversation that occurred in the Oval Office . Therefore, a Special Prosecutor filed a motion of subpoena duces tecum to obtain the tapes and documents from Nixon. However, Nixon in order to avoid relinquishing the tapes claimed an executive privilege. President Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Archibald Cox, but they refused and resigned to show disapproval. They promised Congress that they would not interfere.
Five men were immediately arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee. This was not any kind of burglary, for they stole secret documents from the Democrats. The event happened while Nixon’s second-term campaign was proceeding. 13Later that month, rumors began about Nixon’s involvement In the burglary at Watergate, and many people, including politicians, suggested that Nixon should resign. There was enough evidence to accuse the five men, yet Nixon was the only one accused for being the leader.
Although it is debateable whether or not Nixon knew of the break-ins, he did behave very suspiciously. He became very secretive, resentful, and defensive towards his critics, even going so far as to make
Question 7 (for 10 points): After Nixon was connected to the break-in of the offices of the DNC at the Watergate business complex, in part due to the affiliation of his connection to one of the burglars, who was an employee of Nixon’s Committee for the Re-election of the President (CREEP), it gradually became apparent that the Watergate break in was largely a result of Nixon’s beliefs concerning the degree of latitude his office afforded him with regards to transgression of federal law. As the result of an investigation by a senate committee prompted by the Watergate scandal, it was discovered that during his presidency Nixon had committed a number of crimes, which included “extending political favors to powerful business groups in exchange
These questions will help better understand the Watergate Scandal and the Impeachment process that was put on Richard Nixon. To solve the problems of the Watergate Scandal, research was made to solve the Watergate Scandal, which involved Richard Nixon and the impeachment process. The Watergate Scandal and the Impeachment Process was a big deal back in 1972 and it still is today. Richard Nixon had everything to do with the Watergate Scandal and to prove was that he quickly resigned from his place before he could be impeached.
The first event of the Watergate scandal took place in June 1971. In an attempt to plug security leaks, Nixon creates a Special Investigations Unit called “The Plumbers”. Whether Nixon knew what his men were planning on the night of June 15, 1972, is up for debate, but it was highly controversial. The five burglars on the night of June 15th broke into the Watergate Hotel for a second time. They had previously broken into the hotel to bug the Democratic National Committee office, but one of the wiretaps in the phone was faulty and required the “Plumbers” to replace
During this time of the scandal, “... President Richard Nixon would be forced to resign, many of his principal aides and advisers would be convicted of unlawful activities, and many of the heretofore secret workings of the government would be exposed for public inspection”. The arrest of the five men as well as their guilty pleas revealed a series of wiretaps, slush funds, political sabotage, and unjustified firings. Through this recovery, the American people felt heavily betrayed due to President Nixon being the one to say how he would take charge and investigate when he was the one who planned the break-in. President Nixon had strong speeches and made the people of America feel good about their President. In 1972, President Nixon stated “So, I’m the first four-year president who hasn’t missed a day in office providing I make it to January 20…
In this situation, the executive privilege merely served as the amulet of the president to cover up his personal interest toward reelection, moreover, the investigation has been disrupted many times during the process and led to protest from many justice officials toward Nixon. It is clear that without supervision and regulation, the executive privilege did not serve its true purpose to protect the country and became a super untouchable protection for the president. Although after the protest, Nixon turned over some of the tapes rather than all of them, but the issue on properly use of executive privilege remains the
He used his position of power to obstruct justice and break his presidential oath. For the sake of maintaining that power, Nixon's misuse of authority permitted him to commit crimes with little scrutiny. While breaking his presidential oath to be truthful to the American people, Nixon insisted he didn’t get involved. Finally, when requested to follow Congress' orders, he refused and instead tried to hide his involvement, thereby committing obstruction of justice. A president should know when elected, he or she agrees to all of these
Nixon was accused of sending five men from his presidential campaign to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in order to avoid impeachment. Once the Watergate incident was resolved, it had significant long-term and short-term consequences that altered American history. President Nixon's actions altered voters' perceptions of American authorities, which harmed succeeding presidents and undermined public trust in the government. The Watergate incident demonstrates how corrupt the American government was and how far politicians were ready to go to avoid accountability. Since the Watergate crisis weakened the American political system, many Americans thought that certain reforms were required to avoid another scandal.
All of this deceit only made Nixon viewed as dishonest and shady to the American people, making his impeachment seem almost predictable. But something that was not predicted was Richard Nixon’s
Richard Nixon was the 37th president of the United States; he resigned as president after his involvement in the Watergate Scandal. People broke into the Watergate building to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. Nixon knew about the break in before hand and tried to cover it up. When people found out about him trying to cover it up, he decided to resign as president. He gave his speech on August 8th 1974 and resigned on the 9th.
He had amassed a collection of government fills, tape records, and intelligence on the common people in the Watergate building. After it was broken into, files were stolen and released to the public. It was the first real time that the general public learned just how paranoid Nixon was, but also how much he wanted to keep the power he already had. As these precious documents surfaced, one could see in full light that Nixon exhibited all the symptoms of Paranoid Personality Disorder. He was always distrustful of people, he recorded every encounter he had, so that one could twist his words against him.
Background Information Five months before the 1972 election, burglars were discovered in the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington. The burglary was found to be connected to President Nixon and other White House officials. Nixon denied affiliation with the scandal, but refused to turn over audiotapes of his phone conversations to Congress, claiming that they were covered by “executive privilege”, the President’s right to keep information classified. Constitutional Issue(s) Is the President’s right/executive privilege to safeguard certain information (confidentiality power) immune from judicial review? Supreme Court Decision (Majority Opinion)