Prometheus 6

Antonin Scalia apparently is afraid to have his soul captured.

Marshal Orders Tapes Of Scalia Talk Erased
Reporters Told Justice Bars Recording

By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 9, 2004; Page A02

A federal marshal guarding Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ordered two reporters to erase audio recordings they were making of Scalia's speech to a group of high school students in Mississippi on Wednesday, prompting protests from local journalists who said they were victims of official interference with the press.

As Scalia was addressing an afternoon assembly at the Presbyterian Christian High School in Hattiesburg, Deputy U.S. Marshal Melanie Rube confronted the journalists and told them they must erase their recordings because they violated the justice's policy against audio- or videotaping of his public appearances.

After Associated Press reporter Denise Grones balked, the marshal took her digital recorder and erased its contents -- after Grones explained how the machine worked. The marshal also asked Hattiesburg American reporter Antoinette Konz to hand over a cassette tape and returned it, erased, after the event.

"The deputy's actions were based on Justice Scalia's long-standing policy prohibiting such recordings of his remarks," David Turner, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said. But, he added: "Justice Scalia did not instruct the deputy to take that action."

This isn't a new thing, and it doesn't bother me so much that Scalia is subject to this particular neurosis. What bothers me is the U.S. Marshall took what I feel is an illegal action independently. Her job was to guard Scalia. She needs to stick to that.