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In the 1970s Americans were on edge and didn’t really trust the government because they were coming out of Vietnam War which was the most controversial war (people didn’t want to get involved with things that didn’t involve to them).  When the Pentagon papers were released to the public it revealed that the U.S. was involved with the Vietnam War way more and longer than the people were told. Also creating unease was the Kent State shootings, when college students were protesting 4 students were shot killed and 9 were injured by the National Guard on the Ohio college campus.

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The Watergate Scandal happened when the Nixon administration was working for the 1972 re-election. Nixon was pretty much guaranteed to win the election but in the process of running for re-election, he bugged the democratic party as they were staying in the Watergate Hotel. He would have gotten away with it if investigators didn’t find tapes from Nixon’s meetings in the oval office.

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Executive Privilege and what is too much information to withhold. “Executive privilege is the right of an executive to refuse to make certain documents and conversations public.” This brings in the “no man above the law’ claim.

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Nixon’s case was based on the separation of powers principle in Article II and how it states “The executive power shall be vested [guaranteed legal right] in a President of the United States of America” to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed [carried out].” It’s vaguely worded so Nixon and his administrations tried to find loopholes that would work in favor of their case. For example how Washington refused to let the House see papers relating to the Jay Treaty.

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The prosecutors said that Nixon and his administration were abusing the vaguely written separation of powers principle. They wanted Nixon to give up the tape recordings he kept of all the meetings in the oval office. It would give them proper evidence to incriminate Nixon and understand the deal of Watergate. The case was incredibly fact-dependent and their reasoning was “the fundamental demands of due process of the law in the fair administration of criminal justice”.

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On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled against President Nixon and made him turn over the tape recording to the prosecutor. This happened because the prosecutor provided enough evidence and cause that Nixon had evidence of what happened at the Watergate Hotel.

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The aftermath of this case was very interesting because now American Citizens were scared to trust their own government. Nixon was going to be impeached but then he resigned. He is the only President to ever resign from the Presidency. He would’ve been charged with more but the next President Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon of his crimes. That didn’t give a good start to Gerald Fords Presidency. Relating it to times now many people compare Nixon to Trump because they both called for “Law and Order”. Major scandals now usually have a “gate” at the end of it and that is dues to the significance of this case.

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"United States v. Nixon." Great American Court Cases, edited by Mark Mikula and L. Mpho Mabunda, vol. 4: Business and Government, Gale, 1999. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ2303200695/OVIC?u=pl9363&sid=OVIC&xid=dbf1d880  Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

Graber, Mark A. "Executive Privilege." American Governance, edited by Stephen Schechter, et al., vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2016, p. 136. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3629100228/UHIC?u=pl9363&sid=UHIC&xid=e8dcda78  Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

Kassop, Nancy S. "United States v. Nixon." American Governance, edited by Stephen Schechter, et al., vol. 5, Macmillan Reference USA, 2016, pp. 226-228. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3629100709/UHIC?u=pl9363&sid=UHIC&xid=ac65efc5. Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

Brannen, Daniel E., Jr., et al. "United States v. Nixon (1974)." Supreme Court Drama: Cases That Changed America, edited by Lawrence W. Baker, 2nd ed., vol. 5: Business and Government Law, UXL, 2011, pp. 1051-1059. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1929200210/OVIC?u=pl9363&sid=OVIC&xid=b6720665. Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

"The Other Side of Law and Order: Nixon and the Constraints of Law." American Decades, edited by Judith S. Baughman, et al., vol. 8: 1970-1979, Gale, 2001. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3468302733/UHIC?u=pl9363&sid=UHIC&xid=a5f79afb. Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.