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A constitutional crisis is a situation in which separate factions within a government disagree about the extent to which each of these factions hold sovereignty; as such, it is distinct from a rebellion, in which factions outside of a government challenge that government's sovereignty.A constitutional crisis can lead to government paralysis, collapse, or civil war.
Famous Constitutional Crises
- The Watergate scandal of 1973Events January events January 1 United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark enter the European Economic Community now known as the European Union January 3 Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $10 million to a 12-person syndicate led- 741974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). Events January-February January 5 Dungeons & Dragons officially released. February 4 Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped in the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in, in which President Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon ( January 9, 1913 April 22, 1994) was the thirty-sixth ( 1953 1961) Vice President, and the thirty-seventh ( 1969 1974) President of the United States. He is the only man to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to refused to relinquish secret recordings of conversations in the Oval OfficeThe Oval Office is the official office of the President of the United States, in the West Wing of the White House, built in 1902. The grand concept of an oval room had not figured in the original White House. An oval interior space is a Baroque concept th which were believed to have demonstrated his knowledge and involvement in the affair. After the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Nixon could not rely on executive privilegeExecutive privilege is a claim asserted by the President of the United States and other members of the executive branch to justify withholding of documents and information from other branches of government. As Presidents since George Washington and Thomas to withhold the tapes, he resigned, becoming the nation's first President to do so. It also resulted in the elevation of Vice-President Gerald Ford to the office of President, whereupon he became the nation's first unelected President.
- U.S. President Bill Clinton was involved in two interrelated constitutional crises. In 1994, a civil lawsuit was brought against by Clinton by Paula Corbin Jones , who alleged that Clinton sexually harrassed her in 1991 when he was Governor of Arkansas. Clinton argued that, as a sitting President, any litigation against him should be stayed until he left office. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, holding that a sitting President-defendant could be deposed and litigated against as any other citizen. Jones' lawyers promptly deposed Clinton, confronting him with evidence of an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, which he denied. That led directly to the impeachment of Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives on charges, among other things, perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton was tried by the U.S. Senate and acquitted in 1999, becoming only the second President to be impeached and tried.
- The succession crisis of 2002 in Argentina. Following a massive economic meltdown, Argentina's president resigned, followed by a mass of cabinet members, leading five different men to reluctantly assume the presidency for extremely brief periods over the course of three weeks.
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