United States v. Nixon

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• In 1972, five burglars were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate hotel that were associated with the campaign to re-elect Nixon. The inquiries also revealed that the president and his aides had probably abused their power in other ways as well.

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• During the congressional hearings they found that President Nixon had installed a tape-recording device in the Oval Office. The special prosecutor in charge of the case wanted to get tapes of the Oval Office discussions to help prove that President Nixon and his aides had abused their power and broken the law. President Nixon tried to stop the special prosecutor from obtaining the tapes and even had him removed from his job.

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• In front of the Supreme Court of the United States president Nixon's lawyers argued that the case could not be heard in the courts cause the case involved a dispute within the executive branch. The special prosecutor then argued the the executive privilege is not absolute and that in this case that the confidentiality normally accorded a president and his aides to give away to the demands of the legal system in a criminal case.

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