DaytonDailyNews.com

WASHINGTON — A federal judge says House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, can collect more than $1 million in his lawsuit against Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state.

The decision was issued in a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call. In the 1996 call, Republican leaders discussed an ethics case against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. A Florida couple recorded the cell phone call on a radio scanner and McDermott leaked the tape to two newspapers.

Boehner sued and a federal court found that McDermott had no right to release the calls. The Supreme Court decided in December not to revisit the case.

McDermott called the court fight with Boehner "a long and costly battle," but said the million-dollar judgment was "a small price to pay in defense of so fundamental a principle, and freedom, as the First Amendment."

Because of the protracted legal challenge, "the First Amendment is stronger today, and shielded by new case law that will buttress its capacity to protect the publication of truthful information on matters of public importance long into the future," McDermott said in a statement Tuesday. "Knowing this, I am proud of my role in defense of the First Amendment."

A spokesman for Boehner declined immediate comment.

McDermott has created a legal defense trust fund to cover expenses related to the lawsuit. A report filed with the House clerk shows the trust fund took in about $56,000 in the final three months of last year, for a full-year total of just over $100,000.

Over the years, Boehner has made numerous attempts to settle the case with McDermott. He insisted on three conditions: that McDermott admit he was wrong, apologize to the House and make a $10,000 donation to a charity. McDermott refused.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 5-4 decision last May, said McDermott's offense in leaking the call was especially egregious since at the time he was a senior member of the House ethics committee.

Boehner was among several GOP leaders heard on the December 1996 call, which involved ethics allegations against Gingrich. Two newspapers published articles on the case in January 1997, shortly after McDermott leaked the tape to reporters.