ABSTRACT
Richard Milhous Nixon challenged civil liberties in several ways during his long career in public office, which ended with his resignation as the thirty-seventh president of the United States. Nixon was implicated in the burglary and wiretapping of the Democratic National Party headquarters, an event known as Watergate, and for obstructing the ensuing Senate investigation. Watergate marked a time of broad challenge to political, social, and cultural authority, but aspects of Nixon's transgressions of civil liberties were evident throughout his career. The Watergate scandal symbolized a loss of trust in government and demonstrated how individuals in power could usurp basic understandings of fair electoral competition and free speech. In New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 US 713, the US rebuffed Nixon's effort to enjoin publication of The Pentagon Papers. Nixon refused to turn over the tapes of specified conversations in the Oval Office to Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.
