United States vs Nixon

    In the Watergate scandal, Nixon was accused of covering up a break-in of the Democratic headquarters. Nixon was in possession of tapes he had placed in his office which recorded every conversation he ever had in there. Therefore, these tapes could prove him guilty of covering up the break-in. Nixon refused to give them up by using his executive privilege, and eventually, the case went to the Supreme Court. In the end, Nixon lost and the tapes were turned over, proving him guilty.



    In United States v Nixon, Nixon's attorney argued that the matter of turning over the tapes should not be a "judicial resolution" and instead a matter to be discussed in the executive branch. Also, he argued that the prosecutor hadn't proven that the tapes were necessary for proving the seven men guilty. Finally, Nixon's attorney claimed that Nixon had an executive privilege to protect communications between high government officials and those matters were private and should not be released to anyone.



    The judges had to decide over the extent of what the executive privilege meant to decide the outcome. The judges ended up deciding that there was a "sufficient likelihood" that the tapes were incriminating and therefore should get turned over. They also said that Nixon's Presidential privilege was biased, on a general issue of confidentiality and not military issues, and could, therefore, be overturned in court. It was a unanimous decision by the judges to force Nixon to overturn the tapes.