House Minority Leader Boehner wins leak case lawsuit

The Washington Times reports:

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner yesterday achieved a definitive victory in his decadelong fight with a leading liberal Democrat who leaked an illegally taped 1996 telephone conversation among House Republican leaders.

The Supreme Court yesterday let stand a lower federal court's ruling that Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington had wrongfully leaked the tape to two newspapers, contrary to House rules, and that Mr. Boehner could sue him for damages.

"As I've said many times — when you break the law in pursuit of a political opponent, you've gone too far," Mr. Boehner said yesterday after the court's decision. The lawsuit "was the right fight for the right reasons, and I am pleased to see it reach a successful conclusion."

The fight began more than a decade ago amid the ethics war being waged against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a Florida couple's illegal taping of a cell-phone conversation between the Georgia Republican and other House party leaders, including Mr. Boehner. The tape found its way into the press via Mr. McDermott, who then was the top Democrat on the House ethics panel investigating Mr. Gingrich and pushing for a special prosecutor in the case.

Mr. McDermott had asked the Supreme Court to hear his appeal of a decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, arguing that his free-speech rights gave him the right to leak the illegal taping to the New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The trial judge called Mr. McDermott's actions "willful and knowing misconduct" that "rises to the level of malice."

The justices yesterday refused to hear the appeal, without commenting on their action.

Mr.McDermott and ethics.