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As part of the investigation into the Watergate scandal, a special prosecutor requested that President Richard Nixon turn over audio tapes that had recorded conversations in the Oval Office of the White House. President Nixon refused, claiming that “executive privilege” gave him the right to withhold information in the interests of confidentiality or national security. In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon that “the fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair administration of justice” outweighed the president’s claim to executive privilege.

The Supreme Court’s decision emphasized what important principle of constitutional government?