PRESENTATION OUTLINE
UNITED STATES V. RICHARD NIXON
Argued July 8, 1974
Decided July 24, 1974
It resulted in a unanimous 8–0 ruling against President Richard Nixon and was important to the late stages of the Watergate scandal.
The Supreme Court does have the final voice in determining constitutional questions; no person, not even the president of the United States, is completely above the law; and the president cannot use executive privilege as an excuse to withhold evidence that is "demonstrably relevant in a criminal trial."
Watergate scandal: five burglars broke into Democratic headquarters located in the Watergate building complex in Washington, D.C.
Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger
Nixon resigned fifteen days later, on August 9, 1974.
In April 1974, Jaworski obtained a subpoena ordering Nixon to release certain tapes and papers related to specific meetings between the President and those indicted by the grand jury. Those tapes and the conversations they revealed were believed to contain damaging evidence involving the indicted men and perhaps the President himself.
"The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV, only four years at a time, and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land except the court of impeachment."
