United States v. Nixon
The Supreme Court Case of United states v. Nixon was a landmark case that established that the power of the executive branch is limited. It all began with Watergate. On June 17, 1972 the Democratic National Committee Headquarters were broken into. They were being held at the Watergate hotel in Washington, but also included several office buildings.
The plumbers were a group of white house investigators whose job was to stop the leaking of information to the press. Several members of “the plumbers” played a prominent role in the Watergate break in. Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, James W. McCord Jr, and Frank Sturgis were all hired by Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy. On January 8, 1973 the plumbers and the two men who hired them all pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping. These convictions were particularly scandalous because some of those who were found guilty were former CIA members and all were republican operatives. Therefore, it became more apparent that there must be some sort of white house involvement. This is how Richard Nixon became involved in the scandal, which was the presidential authority at the time.
The above media file is .m4a (Enhanced Podcast) and requires QuickTime to play. For best viewing, download onto your iPod!.
On April 30, 1973, Nixon appointed Eliot Richardson as Attorney General and gives him authority to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate Watergate—the break-in and any involvement by Nixon’s staff or Committee to Re-Elect the President. On May 18, 1973, Richardson named Harvard Law professor Archibald Cox as Special Prosecutor. In July, 1973, Cox subpoenas the President’s tape recordings of Oval Office conversations about the break-in and cover-up; Nixon, through his Attorney General, asks Cox to drop the subpoena, but Cox refuses. On October 23, 1973, bowing to pressure, Nixon agreed to release some of the tapes. However, they are edited and merely transcripts.
A few days later, in what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre, Nixon compelled the resignations of Richardson and his deputy in a search for someone in the Justice Department willing to fire Cox. Solicitor General Robert Bork, now the acting Attorney-General, dismissed Cox. On November 1, 1973, Leon Jaworski was appointed new Watergate Special Prosecutor. On April 16, 1974, Jaworski subpoenas more of Nixon’s tapes. Nixon moved to have the subpoena quashed, or voided, but D.C. District Court Judge John Sirica denied Nixon’s motion. Nixon filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect himself from having to release all the tapes of his Oval Office conversation with aides. Nixon claimed that he held “executive privilege” and thus did not need to release the tapes and is immune to judicial review. There were speculations that the tapes contained racial slurs and foul language which would have worsened Nixon’s image.
The issue was is the President's right to safeguard certain information, using his executive privilege confidentiality power, entirely immune from judicial review? When the case went to the Supreme Court, the Court held that although executive privilege can be used in military and/or domestic circumstances, it cannot be used as a way to evade justice, and thus Nixon had to comply to the order of releasing the tapes.
Nixon resigned soon after the Supreme Court decision was announced, and VP Ford took his position, becoming the first man to step down from being the President of the United States.