The doctrine of direct estoppel prevents a party to a litigation from relitigating an issue that was decided against that party in that litigation, under certain circumstances.

"The overall problem," Mr. Parrish said, "is that she does not feel it's in the best interests of the child to be party to a litigation in which the publicity suggests that she has a meaningful position on such a serious issue."

The district court ordered the defendants to disclose the wiretapped conversations to the SEC, declaring that "the notion that only one party to a litigation should have access to some of the most important non-privileged evidence bearing directly on the case runs counter to basic principles of civil discovery in an adversary system".