Us Vs Nixon Case Study

United States v. Richard Milhous Nixon, President of the United Stater, et al. was a landmark US Supreme Court case. Nixon was brought to trial on Jul 8, 1974 and the case was decided July 24, 1974. The final decision was an unanimous 8-0, decided by the Burger Court. In June 1972, five people were arrested inside the Democratic Party's offices in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Later it was discovered that the intruders may have been employed by the Republican Party and they could've been trying find information that would have helped elect the incumbent President. Initially, President Nixon's campaign refused to associate themselves with the incident and even tried tampering with the evidence collected. In 1973, it was decided by

v. Nixon case, there was confusion whether taking the President of the United States to court in the first place was lawful. Article II of the United States Constitution was cited by the President’s counsel, claiming Nixon's executive privilege. Another reason it may have seemed unlawful to take Nixon to court is because the case was an executive branch matter, taking it to court would make it a judicial problem as well, making the branches of the government

They stated that the separation of the judicial and executive branches should prevent the judicial branch's involvement with the functioning of the executive branch. President Nixon’s lawyers claimed that the the president was entitled to absolute executive privilege, meaning that his confidential communications couldn't be revealed without his consent. Two reasons were set out to support their argument. First, the President needed honest advice from his advisors, and these advisors might not be able to give that advice if the possibility of it being publicized existed. Second, these confidential communications were vital for the president to carry out the duties assigned to the executive branch by the Constitution. The lawyers of the United States argued that the President's power and privilege were not absolute. Then it was stated that executive privilege may not be used to prevent a free and fair criminal investigation. This is a dispute that can properly be heard in the federal court cases. Another argument for the US Lawyers was that the Supreme Court rejected Nixon’s argument regarding the separation of the three governmental branches, responding that the case raised a constitutional question, and therefore clearly fell within the functions of the judicial branch as interpreter of the Constitution. To support their ruling, the justices cited the