U.S. v. Nixon Theme of Rules and Order

Some people think the rules don't apply to them.

Presidents included.

Even though our Founding Fathers didn't have the privilege of hearing The Who's We Won't Get Fooled Again (Quadrophenia is a better album anyway), they put in place a system of rules called checks and balances to prevent the abuse and expansion of power by any one branch of government. When a president breaks the law or uses power that isn't given to him by the Constitution, these checks and balances are supposed to come into play. When Nixon attempted to quash the special prosecutor's subpoena of his White House tapes and records, the judicial branch stepped in to determine whether that within his legitimate executive powers.

In deciding U.S. v. Nixon, the Court had rules of its own to follow, called "precedent." They had to rely on the judgments in previous cases that untangled the relationship between the various branches of government to make an argument carefully based on settled law. Their Opinions aren't just opinions.

At the time of the decision, the justices had no idea of the absolute lack of law and order during the first Nixon administration—the break ins, political smear campaigns, illegal wiretapping, the existence of the Plumbers, etc. But by carefully examining the rules about executive privilege and evidence in this case, they ended up exposing the whole mess.

Nixon had to play by the rules, just like everyone else, and he got taken down big-time because he didn't.

1. What branch of the government did Nixon think was overstepping its bounds in U.S. v. Nixon?
2. Why did the Justices decide that the Court had a say in this executive dispute?
3. Can executive privilege be used to support the rule of law in addition to obstructing it? How?

The decision in U.S. v. Nixon showed that the system of checks and balances did its job

Nixon's attempt to hide the tapes from the prosecutors was more than breaking the rules of executive privilege; it was part of a larger cover-up.