COURT ALLOWS SUIT AGAINST NIXON, AIDES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580015-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: June 23, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580015-6
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE`A '
split Of justices
is Halperin Victor
By Lyle Denniston
Washington star Staff Writer'
An evenly split Supreme Court
ruled yesterday that former Presi-
dent Richard Nixon may be sued for
damages for allowing wiretapping of.
an aide's home telephone.
The court's action also permits
damage lawsuits against former Nix-
on assistants Henry A. Kissinger and
H.R. Haldeman and former Attorney
General John Mitchell. ,
Nixon, Kissinger, Haldeman and
Mitchell had been sued in federal
court here by Morton Halperin, who
was an aide on Kissinger's national
security-staff during the Nixon ad-
ministration.
Halperin's home. telephone-was
tapped for 21 months. when high of-
ficials in the White House suspected
him of leaking foreign policy and de-
fense secrets to the press. The exis-
tence of the tap was disclosed after
the leak of the secret Pentagon Pa-
pers in 1971.
A similar wiretap was put on the
home telephones of New York Times
reporter Hedrick Smith. The legal
status of Smith's case against Nixon,
and of other damage lawsuits also in-
volving wiretapping during the Nix-
on administration, remains unclear
in the wake of yesterday's action by.
the court.
.The justices,' while allowing Hal-:
perin's case to gdto trial,did not set
tle the basic constitutional question
of whether the president and. his
closest advisers are immune to such
damages when they violate a per-.
son's constitutional rights.
In fact, the court announced yes
terday that it would review, another
test case raising that issue directly...
That decision will not come. until
sometime next year.
The new case involves a $3.5 mil-
lion lawsuit against Nixon and two
other aides by A- Ernest Fitzgerald.
who lost his Pentagon job after criti-
'
cizing overspending on: a military
;-..::w ,,?; .v:,
airplane.
THE IASHI GTO r ST.' (RE L
23 June 19131
Court Allows;
{
Suit Against'
Nixon,_Aides
The two actions by "the'court yes-
terday left lawyers somewhat uncer-
tain as to the state of immunity for
presidents and their close associates
when their official actions intrude
on someone's constitutional rights.
Halperin's attorney, Mark Lynch.:
said of the action:. 'It's a victory r
think. There could be'a lot of confu---
lion down the road." -
The court split. 4-4 in the Halperin
case because one justice. had dis-
qualified himself. Justice William H.
Rehnquist, who was a Justice Depart-
ment official in the Nixon adminis-
tration at the time of the Halperin
wiretapping, took no part in the case.-
When the court splits 4-4, the* re-
sult is that, a lower court ruling is!
upheld. The -court writes no opinion
in such instances.
The 4-4 split technically cleared
the way for the trial of lawsuits
against Nixon, Kissinger and ?ditch
ell..:_
In a separate' order,' the court
agreed to let the trial go ahead
against Haldeman,- too. The court
said it had been wrong in even
agreeing to hear Haldeman's appeal
along with those of Nixon, Kissinger
and Mitchell. For Haldeman, howev-
er, the result is the same: the lower
court ruling against -him takes ef-
fect, thus permitting the trial.
What that means for Halperin is
that he has won the right to have his'
case go to a. trial against Nixon_Kis-
,singer, Haldeman,and Mitchell and
he has an opportunity at that trial
'-to win damages ; that could, run- as
-,high as 5100 a day ?for the wiretap=.
.ping
Nixon and his former aides; at the'
same time, get the right to try to de-
fend themselves by. arguing-that the*
wiretapping was necessary to na-
tional security because. it involved
the gathering of, "foreign intelli-
gence
. -Kissinger also will have the legal
right to argue that he simply was not
`involved_in'.the wiretapping.. inci-?
dent, and thus should have no liabil-.
Previously, Halperin has won a tr.-.l
Len S1 in damages against Nixon and ,
.his, three former associates.. Ulti-
mately he might not even win that
much if the legal defense that Nixon
and his aides._now; may., make suc-
ceedsy
While the Halperin case goes for-
ward in a`U.S..District Courr here,
the Supreme Court will be-moving I
ahead with the new appeal involv-f
ing Fitzgera~d's: damage claim..
Should the court rule in that case
that the president and his close a;des
are immune to damage lawsuits for!
.their official actions, that might ul-
timately have the practical affect of
wiping. -out any victory Halperin
wins in the new trial of his case.
Even Halperin's lawyers conceded
that is a possibility, although they al-
so argued that the court could feel
bound in the future by what it de-
cided yesterday in the split decision.
Fitzgerald's case is aimed at for-'
.trier White House-assistants Bryce
Harlow and Alexander Butterfield,
as well as at Nixon.
Rehnquist will presumably par-
ticipate in that case, because it does
not involve Justice Department of-
ficials.
There will be another new mem-
ber of the court by that time - the
successor to retiring Justice Potter
-Stewart. '
Because the court never discloses
how the individual justices voted
when it splits 44, it is unknown how
Stewart voted. in this case. , _I
In a key ruling in 1978 limiting of-.j
ficiai immunity in general, Stewart'i
voted in favor, of immunity, as did
Rehnquist.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580015-6