U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower-court ruling that he improperly disclosed the content of cell phone conversations that had been illegally taped.

The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that McDermott shouldn’t have done what he did – leak the conversations of House Republican leaders to two newspapers. He leaked the calls when he was a senior member of the House ethics committee and had taken a pledge of confidentiality.

McDermott is claiming that the ruling infringed on his First Amendment rights.

All that aside, what is most remarkable is how long this case has been hanging around. The topic of the taped calls was then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and it happened while President Clinton was in his first term in office.

Jim McDermott in happier times, just after being knighted Sept. 7 by the king of Lethoso, King Letsie III.