Spectator Files Suit; Alleges Wiretapping

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) filed suit in Federal Court Thursday against Columbia University and the New York Telephone Company for allegedly wiretapping the telephones of the Columbia Daily Spectator.

The class action, suit lists eight Spectator editors as complainants. The phone tapping allegedly occurred last Wednesday when, Spectator editors say, conversations about antiwar student strikes were repeatedly cut off.

Besides Columbia and the Telephone Company, the suit names as defendants William Ellinghouse, president of New York Telephone, William V. McGill, president of Columbia, and two other Columbia officials.

Columbia spokesmen could not be reached for comment yesterday, while NYCLU officials refused to make say statement saying the case was too new. A spokesman for the university last week denied that wiretapping had occurred.

The suit alleges violations of the Constitution's first, fourth, and fourteenth amendments, as well as violations of New York state law.

In Washington, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a civil complaint yesterday against acting Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst 47 and 13 others accusing them of conspiracy in the mass arrests of last year's May Day demonstrations