WASHINGTON â Larry Klayman knew how to pick a legal fight long before Monday, when he took the first round in a judicial crusade on behalf of the little guy against big-government snooping. But not always a winning fight.  In the 1990s, he filed numerous lawsuits against President Bill Clinton and his administration, alleging a litany of personal and professional transgressions. Mr. Klayman later nettled Vice President Dick Cheney over his secret energy policy meetings and claimed that members of George W. Bushâs administration might have known in advance of the 2001 anthrax attacks in Washington.  More recently, Mr. Klayman, who has been called âLitigious Larry,â sued OPEC, accusing oil-rich nations of price fixing and of trying to âbring Western economies to their knees.â And he sued Facebook and its founder for $1 billion when, he said, it was too slow to take down a web page that threatened Jews with death.  Many of his lawsuits have fallen far short of the success bombastically predicted by Mr. Klayman. But on Monday, a federal judge agreed with his contention that the National Security Agency had exceeded its constitutional authority by systematically gathering the telephone records of Americans.  Mr. Klayman, in Klayman-like fashion, quickly proclaimed it the âbiggest ruling in the history of government litigationâ and said it validated his repeated legal assaults against the establishment.  âItâs a little like a MIRV nuking a missile,â he said in an interview on Monday night, referring to the use of a weapon with several warheads to take down an incoming threat. âIf only one in 10 gets through, youâve accomplished something. Youâve got to keep punching.â  Mr. Klayman, 62, is a fixture of sorts in Washington. He founded, and then parted ways, with the conservative interest group Judicial Watch, which continues litigating grievances despite Mr. Klaymanâs bitter departure. (He sued Judicial Watch, too, accusing it of breach of contract and other offenses.) His 2009 book is titled âWhores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment.â  Mike McCurry, who was a press secretary in Mr. Clintonâs administration, recalled Mr. Klayman as an âannoying criticâ for the Clinton White House and for successors from both parties. But Mr. McCurry noted that his methods have sometimes succeeded in the courts.  âHis latest legal challenge might create some evidence that there is method in his madness,â Mr. McCurry said.  Mr. Klayman has not spared the current Democratic administration. At a Tea Party rally in October, he urged conservatives âto demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up.â  Last year, Mr. Klayman filed a lawsuit in Florida arguing that Barack Obama was ineligible to be president because âneither Mr. Obama, nor the Democratic Party of Florida, nor any other group has confirmed that Mr. Obama is a ânatural born citizenâ since his father was a British subject born in Kenya and not a citizen of the United States.â  Mr. Klaymanâs own political career was short-lived. In 2004, he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the Senate in Florida, receiving only about 1 percent of the vote.  But it is a point of pride for Mr. Klayman that his legal âmissilesâ have no guidance systems that aim them in only one direction. He is proudly nonpartisan, he said, giving himself credit for being âone of the firstâ to call for Newt Gingrich to resign over ethics scandals when he was the speaker of the House.  Mr. Klayman said his legal attacks on the governmentâs spying programs are further evidence that he cares less about the party in power than about forcing the powerful to answer to their critics.  âTo me, this is completely a nonpartisan issue. It doesnât have anything to do with Republicans or Democrats,â he said on Monday. âIâm just happy for the American people.â
The ruling on the National Security Agencyâs phone records program has given Larry Klayman, a plaintiff who is no stranger to lawsuits against the government, plenty to crow about.