Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is at it again! He refused to allow people?’s votes to be counted in Bush v. Gore and now he is trampling on the First Amendment. While speaking on the importance of the First Amendment to a group of high school students in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, just this week, Scalia had federal marshals CONFISCATE the tape recorders of two reporters and ERASE THEIR TAPE recordings of his speech.

All the while, Scalia was telling the students: ''The Constitution of the United States is extraordinary and amazing. People just don't revere it like they used to.'' Physician heal thyself. Where?’s Justice Scalia?’s reverence for the First Amendment? Here?’s the text because all of us should know it and revere it, even if Justice Scalia doesn?’t:

Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Erasing the tapes of journalists is the kind of thing you only hear about from Russia, or North Korea, or China. What?’s scary about Scalia is that it happened right here at home ?– in the land of the First Amendment, the land of Freedom of Speech.

If President Bush is re-elected, Scalia is at the top of his list to become Chief Justice of the United States when Justice Rehnquist retires. ?“Chief Justice Scalia?” would gut our civil rights, privacy rights, the right of choice ?– and apparently the right of free speech to suit his own right wing ideological views.

Justice Scalia thinks it's fine to go duck hunting with Vice President Cheney and then refuse to recuse himself when Cheney?’s most important lawsuit reaches the Supreme Court. Is this who you want to be our next Chief Justice?

The Truth of the Matter

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has apologized for an incident last week in which a U.S. marshal erased reporters' recordings of a speech Scalia gave to high school students.
''I have written to the reporters involved, extending my apology,'' Scalia said in a letter to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
In his letter to the journalists' advocacy group, Scalia said he had NOT directed the marshal to act. ''I was as upset as you were,'' he wrote.

Jimbo or the L.A. Times?

L.A. Times
4/9/04
THE NATION
Scalia's Tape Tactics at Issue

Experts question legal basis for confiscation -- apparently on justice's orders -- of recordings.

By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON ?— First Amendment experts on Thursday questioned the legal basis for a deputy U.S. marshal ?— apparently acting on the orders of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ?— to confiscate and erase recordings made by two reporters invited to hear the justice speak at a high school gym....

Jimbo AND the L.A. Times!

Copyright 2004 The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times
All Rights Reserved
Los Angeles Times

April 13, 2004 Tuesday
Home Edition

SECTION: MAIN NEWS; National Desk; Part A; Pg. 12

HEADLINE: The Nation;
Scalia Apologizes Over Tape Incident;
The Supreme Court justice tells a reporters group he DIDN'T order recordings to be erased. He says future speeches may be taped.

BYLINE: David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, responding to complaints over a federal marshal's erasing of journalists' tape recordings last week, said he regretted the incident and sent a letter of apology to the two reporters.
''The action was NOT taken at my direction. I was as upset as you were,'' Scalia said in a letter sent Friday to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.