Scalia censors himself

[Mystech]

HATTIESBURG, Mississippi (AP) -- Two reporters were ordered Wednesday to erase their tape recordings of a speech by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at a Mississippi high school.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/04/08/scalia.reporters.ap/index.html

This seems a little silly, doesn't it? What exactly is Scalia saying in front of a croud of people that he doesn't want to be heard? Maybe he just thinks his voice sounds funny when it's played back to him?

Last year, Scalia was criticized for refusing to allow television and radio coverage of an event in Ohio in which he received an award for supporting free speech.

Does this strike anyone as being particularly ironic to anyone? Do non-elected officials have an obligation to be answerable to the public which they help govern, or is this sort of thing acceptable behavior?

"The Constitution of the United States is extraordinary and amazing. People just don't revere it like they used to," Scalia told a full auditorium of high school students, officials, religious leaders.

Hmm, maybe he doesn't want to be heard by the masses because he'd hate for someone to point out that it's his own religious conservatives who are the ones trying to screw with the constitution lately, that would certainly make him look like a big ass.

 

[Tiassa]

It will make it easier, I admit, for him to say what he wants and not feel the need to recuse himself from cases he would really like to screw with, such as the Newdow case.

 

[SpyMoose]

I think it’s alright for him to say things like he doesn’t want to have cameras at his speeches. Our Supreme Court Justices are really Americas only untouchable autocracy, they are in for life, and never have to worry about elections. The thinking behind that is to not trouble fair minded people with things like that so they can stay just. If they were all subject to the public media circus they would perhaps be distracted from their task of being the most influential arbiters of justice on the planet. I don't really think that should extend to not allowing speeches to be recorded and reprinted, that sort of clandestine paranoia really goes against the grain of American transparency. And to allow recordings to be made without going through the usual steps he takes of saying "No recordings please" and then having his security confiscate and destroy the recordings... well that just makes it look like he has something to run from. It’s not good when one of the ultimate arbiters of justice seems so shifty.

 

[Mystech]

I don't like the idea that he's speaking publicly but not all of the public is allowed to hear him. I'm sure what he was saying wasn't anything of great importance, but really it's the principal of the thing. What's he saying to kids going to a catholic school that he doesn't want the rest of the nation to hear, that's what I'd like to know. I'll bet he gave 'em a big smile and a wink and gave his report about how the Christian agenda is going according to plan and that by this time next year we'll have reverted back to the middle ages, just as they have always wanted! Now there’s a conservative agenda!

 

[Tiassa]

I thought this worth mentioning:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a letter to an Associated Press reporter received Tuesday, said he learned his lesson over an incident in which a federal marshal erased recordings of a speech Scalia gave to high school students.

Scalia also vowed he would make it clear in the future that recording his remarks for the use of the print media would not be a problem.

"I have learned my lesson (at your expense), and shall certainly be more careful in the future," Scalia wrote in the letter dated Friday . . . .

. . . . "As I understand it from press reports, a United States Marshal erased, or caused you to erase, the tape recorder that you were using for the purpose of assuring the accuracy of your press report," Scalia wrote in an apology to both reporters. "I imagine that is an upsetting and indeed enraging experience and I want you to know how it happened." (Associated Press)

The explanation is weak, and begs certain questions.

I'm just not sure what more to say is the thing.

Is Scalia perchance a Freemason? Or something like that?