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.

I believe that the President should have the right to privacy of recordings which took place in the privacy of the Oval Office. Although these tapes were being covered up because they held incriminating information against the president, it could have been because they had important information on a matter of national secruity. When we elect a President into office, we are intrusting him to protect us, and we muct give him a certain amount of privacy in order to do that.

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

I feel that in some cases a president would be justified to fire a special prosecutor, but in this specific situation, President Nixon was not. The President needs to be confortable with the fact that he has surrounded himself with people in the government whom he can trust. However, in this case, Nixon only wanted to fire Cox because he feared he was going to reveal some of Nixon's wrongdoings whale in office, which had nothing to do with national security or his ability to fulfill his obligations as commander in chief.

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

A crisis was indeed created by this incident. When Nixon refused Congress's order to turn over the oval office tapes, he created an inbalence between the three branches of government.

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

The public was outraged by the Watergate scandal because it caused them to lose a great amount of trust in their government. The President had lied to them all, and they felt betrayed.

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

I do not feel it was the right move for Nixon to resign the presidency. Even with all of his misdeeds in office, all resigning the office did was create a lack of stability in the office, and Nixon had already done alot of good for the nation as president, such as opening up communication with China.

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

I do feel that after he finished his time as President, Nixon should have been prosictuted. It needed to be shown that nobody is above the law, including the president.