U.S vs Nixon supreme court essay PDF

Preview

Summary

essay over supreme court, what caused this case to go to the supreme court....

Description

1

Running Head: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Jessica Soto GOV-140 Micheal Stella 06/14/2021

2

Running Head: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

INTRODUCTION The writer will be discussing The United States vs Nixon 1974 case, surrounding the president and his aids who have been claimed who abused their power and broken the law due to the refusal of President Nixon to turn over the White House tapes. Creating challenges that eventually led the case to the supreme court of the United States (StreetLaw, 2021). This case further analyzes “the legal concept of executive privilege, federalism, and separation of power/checks and balances” (StreetLaw2021). This paper will demonstrate how president Nixon abused his power, misused justice, and violated the bill of rights.

3

Running Head: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Individuals and Groups Involved

This case arose due to the watergate scandal when President Nixon and his colleague/Aids invaded the decorated headquarters which began in 1972, during the presidential election, where some of the men involved were part of the Nixon administration. This was known as the watergate scandal seven, who were H.R Haldeman, J. Ehrlichman, J. Mitchell, C. Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, R. Mardian, and K. Parkinson. All seven were involved in planting a bug on the phone of the democratic campaign, after the bug was implanted they hired an FBI agent to listen in on the conversation that the democrats would have. After that, the burglar noticed that one of their recorders was not working at the watergate hotel, so the five men decided to re-enter to plant the bug on the democratic department, by this time a security guard at Watergate hotel noticed the tape on the door that will allow people to enter the building as they please without any struggle, so without hesitation, he called the police department. When the police arrived they found the five men inside of the watergate hotel in the democratic headquarters, the police officer arrest all five-man. One of the burglars had a walking-talky in which he has dispatch Gordon to inform him that they have been caught by the police. Police found money on the men and turned the case over to the FBI under the impression that it had to do with money laundering. When the story hit the media no one seems to care about it until they found out that one of the burglars was the head of security of the President Nixon campaign, while investigating the FBI discovered a checkbook with Hunt's name and initials WH that symbolize “white House” (Clark, 2017). The reporter soon discovers that another person connected to the watergate scandal was Colson a person who is directly connected to president Nixon and the white house, after President Nixon seen that Colson's name was in the newspaper

4

Running Head: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in connection with the watergate scandal, is when president Nixon started to panic. During President Nixon's paranoia, the men involved in the watergate scandal starts to cooperate with the FBI, the judge who handled the case was not satisfied with the outcome and asked the senate to look over the case, around this time President Nixon won the Presidential by all states. However, the judge wanted to know if president Nixon last campaign involved some illegal activities or if he was involved with the watergate case. Roughly, around this time one of the burglars wrote a letter to the courts that said: “ there was political pressure applied to the defendant to plead guilty and remain silent!” (Clark, 2017). President Nixon then fires everyone involved in the watergate break-in, and the following day runs to the media to explain how members in his committee were involved in the Watergate cover-up and how they with-held information from the people and himself. President continues stating how he has asked for their resignation. Nonetheless, John Dean, a former worker of the committee testify for over eight hours one President Nixon's “dirty campaign” (Clark, 2017). He provided the watergate senate all the evidence to tie President Nixon to the watergate break-in. During this investigation it was stated how there are recording devices in the oval office, the asked President Nixon to turn in the tapes and he refuses to do so for a few months.

Case Information President Nixon is now on the hot seat and starts having people fired who is investigating the watergate scandal, still refusing to turn over the tapes, the house of representative started the impeachment process, President Nixon chooses to turn in the edited transcripts of the recording, thinking that would be enough, however, that was not the case on July 24th the supreme court ordered President Nixon to release the white house tapes. After the supreme court reviewed the

5

Running Head: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties tape they noticed that president Nixon had obstructed Justice six days after the Watergate breakin. One can hear on the tapes how president Nixon has been interfering in the watergate case which is a clear violation of the law ( NCC, 2020 ). On July 2th the judicial office filed an impeachment against President Nixon for obstruction of justice, in three days the congress filled two impeachments for abuse of power and another for contempt of congress. However, on August 8th, 1974 president Nixon resigns, by doing this he avoids a trial at the senate.

Inconclusion This case showed the world how no one is above the law, not even the president. President Nixon used his power to break many laws and interfere in cases he was not allowed to. Nixon assumed that because he was president that the laws did not apply to him. He later found out how the bill of rights can not be violated regardless of who they are.

6

Running Head: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties References United States v. Nixon. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved June 14, 2021, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1973/73-1766 NCC Staff. (2020). Looking back: The Supreme Court decision that ended Nixon’s Presidency. Retrieved from: https://www.constitutioncenter.org

Mar c hi s i o,L.( 2012) .Ex ecut i v ePr i vi l egeunderWashi ngt on’ sSepar at i onofPo wer sDoct r i ne.Washi ngt on LawRevi ew,87( 3) ,813–849. Kai nec,L.A.( 1993) .Judi ci al r ev i ewofSenat ei mpeachmentpr oceedi ngs:I sahandsoffappr oac h appr opr i at e ?CaseWes t er nRes er v eLawRevi ew,43( 4) ,1499....