The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The First Amendment protects a Democratic congressman accused of leaking an illegally taped telephone conversation of House Republican leaders, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The ruling comes in a lawsuit Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the fourth-ranking House Republican, filed against Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash.
The lawsuit stirred interest when he filed it in March, because it is believed to be the first in which one lawmaker sued another over personal actions.
Boehner said his privacy rights were violated when McDermott leaked a tape of a December 1996 cellular phone call in which GOP leaders talked about strategy in House Speaker Newt Gingrich's ethics case.
The New York Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution and Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress, published stories that detailed accounts of the call.
McDermott argued that because the recordings were a matter of "important public interest," the First Amendment outweighed Boehner's privacy rights.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan ruled Tuesday that McDermott had legally obtained the tape, and therefore had a constitutional right to disclose it.
"Although protection of privacy is certainly a substantial government interest, it is not clear that it is an interest 'of the highest order,' such that it can trump defendant's First Amendment rights," Hogan wrote.
But the judge did not let McDermott off without a rebuke, alluding to his position on the House Ethics Committee at the time of the controversy. "It is unfortunate that a United States representative, who had chosen a position that supposedly illuminated him as a beacon of ethical behavior, should so eagerly seek to capitalize on the skullduggery of would-be party operatives to win petty, partisan victories in the press," he wrote.
"The First Amendment is largely blind to motives, however, and it offers protection not only to the noble, but also to the ignoble." Last year, a Florida couple pleaded guilty to illegally taping portions of the call, and said they provided the tape to McDermott. Jennifer Crider, McDermott's spokeswoman, said the congressman would not comment until the matter is resolved.
Boehner released a statement which said: "Though we disagree with his conclusion, the substance of this judge's ruling today confirms what we have believed all along -- that Jim McDermott acted unethically when he leaked the contents of the illegally obtained taped."
A staff member said Boehner is considering several options, including an appeal and an ethics complaint in the House of Representatives. On the tape, Boehner and other members of the House GOP leadership were heard planning a strategy in advance of an announcement from the ethics committee that a settlement had been reached in the speaker's ethics case. Gingrich admitted to ethics violations and agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty.
GOP leaders were maneuvering at the time to make sure the disposition of the case didn't jeopardize Gingrich's campaign to win re-election as speaker.
