Smith v. Nixon

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JOHN LEWIS SMITH, Jr., District Judge.

Introduction

The single question before the Court is whether the plaintiffs may obtain equitable relief on their request for expungement of all previously nonpublicized transcripts or summaries of an 89-day government wiretap on their home telephone in 1969. The wiretap had purportedly been conducted pursuant to a presidentially approved surveillance program instituted for the purpose of identifying government employees who had been leaking sensitive classified national security information to the press. The circumstances surrounding the…