Jim McDermott, Congressional Representative from Washington State's 7th District (which includes Seattle) was given a tape of a telephone conference call that a Florida couple had inadvertently picked up on their police radio. The couple quickly determined that they were hearing a discussion of illegal skullduggery between elected officials and quickly taped the rest of the conversation.
The conversation was between then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and a couple of other congressmen. Knowing Jim McDermott to be a scrupulously honest politician (rara avis indeed!! In the last Congressional election, he was re-elected for the umpteenth time by 85% of the vote!), the couple contacted him and gave him the tape.
McDermott gave the tape (fortunately, keeping a copy) to the House Ethics Committee. The House Ethics Committee put it under "File and Forget." The ETHICS committee did nothing with it!
So McDermott, determined that American voters have a right to know how their elected officials are behaving, gave a copy of the tape to the New York Times. The New York Times published it.
Newt Gingrich and one of the other congressmen involved in the conversation, John Boehner, Republican—who, incidentally, is the current Speaker of the House—rather than being suitably ashamed of themselves, sued McDermott for "illegally leaking confidential government information" !!!!
The suit took place in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the presiding judge, Thomas Francis Hogan—appointee to the court in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan—(surprise surprise!) ruled against McDermott and ordered him to pay Gingrich and Boehner a fortune in "damages" for McDermott's "willful and knowing misconduct" that "rises to the level of malice."
McDermott challenged that ruling in a federal appeals court, arguing that since he was not the one who was actively involved in making the recording, his actions were allowed under the First Amendment, and said a ruling against him would have "a huge chilling effect" on reporters and newsmakers alike. 18 news organizations—including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The Associated Press, the New York Times and the Washington Post—filed a brief backing McDermott.
The ruling has been appealed to the Supreme Court, but so far, the Supreme Court has refused to hear it.
Please, give us more elected leaders like Jim McDermott and let us scrape those like Newt Gingrich and John Boehner off our shoes!!