Imagine there's no wiretapping...it's easy, if you try... October 24, 1973: John Lennon sues the FBI

[Amerigo Vespucci]

October 24, 1973: John Lennon sues the U.S. government for wiretapping his phone

John Lennon’s simple and most enduring message, "Give peace a chance," roused many fans to protest the Vietnam War alongside him in the late 1960s and 1970s. It also caused the United Stated government to suspect him of being a radical threat, and soon enact a thorough surveillance program on him.

After Lennon and Yoko Ono held their famed "bed-ins" in Montreal and Amsterdam, which nonviolently protested the war, the FBI began keeping elaborate records on the Beatle, including taking notes on his media appearances and wiretapping his phone. Their efforts culminated in an attempt to have Lennon deported to England, especially as he became more vocal about rallying young voters against Richard Nixon on the eve of the 1972 election.

Lennon, in turn, sued the FBI for the illegal wiretapping. The FBI denied the charge; as excerpted in historian Jon Wiener's book Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files, officials pointed out that there were no wiretapping logs in their Lennon surveillance file (unlike Martin Luther King, Jr.'s file). It was a suspicious defense, but enough for Lennon to scale back his activity in the anti-Nixon movement to avoid deportation. He secured his green card to stay in America in 1976.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/week-in-rock-history-john-lennon-sues-the-fbi-20111024