United States v. Nixon

1. Regardless of the outcome, should the President of the United States have a right to privacy in regards to the Oval Office tapes? Explain.

No, I do not think that the President should have the right to keep the tapes, especially because they were evidence of the Watergate scandal. If Nixon truly had not been a part of the Watergate Scandal then he wouldn't have objected as much to showing them to the supreme court. I think that the president should have a right to keep certain articles private, but if it is a mnatter of national security, then I think exceptions should be made.

2. Was President Nixon justified when he fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox? Explain.

No, Nixon was not justified in firing Archibald Cox because he was only doing it to prevent any more of the tapes being given to the Supreme Court. Nixon claimed that they were a matter of national security, and so he offered to provide a summary of the rest of the tapes (only eight had been given up by Nixon); however, Archibald said that that would not be suffiecient.

3. Was Nixon creating a Constitutional crisis by refusing to hand-over the tapes? Explain.

Yes because the president is entitled to the right to privacy, but since he refused to hand over the tapes it became an issue of national security.

4. Why do you think the American public was so outraged by Watergate?

Because the president had lied to the country, he had knowingly violated the law, and participated in the cover up of Watergate.


5. Do you think President Nixon should have resigned? Explain.

Yes because he would have been impeached by the Supreme court for obstructing justice, defying Judiciary Commitee subpoenas an misusing the presedential power to violate the constitutional rights of US citizens.

6. Do you think President Nixon should have been prosecuted? Explain.

Yes i think Nixon should have been prosecuted. If he had come clean about his crimes in the beginning I think that he wouldn't have needed to step down, but even at the very end he insisyed he was innocent.