John Lewis Smith Jr.; District Judge

John Lewis Smith Jr., retired chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington has died at age 79.

Smith died Friday in Washington of pneumonia.

He made rulings in the Watergate case, including a decision that the Administration of President Richard M. Nixon had illegally wiretapped the home of National Security Council staff member Morton Halperin.

In a damage suit brought by Halperin, Smith ordered Nixon, former Atty. Gen. John N. Mitchell and former White House Chief of Staff H.R. (Bob) Haldeman to pay monetary damages to Halperin.

In a related case in 1987, Smith ordered the federal government to expunge records of an illegal wiretap that the Nixon Administration had placed on the home telephone of New York Times reporter Hedrick Smith.

In another of his cases of national significance, Smith in 1976 temporarily blocked the closing of rural post offices that the U.S. Postal Service said were in the red.

Smith ordered that any closures adhere to the service’s own rules for shutdowns, but cautioned against maintaining unprofitable offices.

“Statutes do not mandate deficit operations in rural areas,” he said, “nor do they preclude the USPS from being fiscally responsible.”

Smith was named to the federal bench in 1966 and served as chief judge of his district in 1981 and 1982. He also sat for 10 years on the District of Columbia local trial court.