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Who hasn't wanted the power to edit his own words, to make a few tidy emendations to clean up what one said in haste, or anger, but always in public? And so it was that U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy laid down the law the other day in New York.
Hizzoner let it be known that a talk he would give Oct. 28 at The Dalton School on Manhattan's toney East Side could be covered by the student media only if he had the right of prior approval. That put editors and reporters at The Daltonian in the embarrassing position of not running a story in last Friday's edition.
It said, "Dear High School Community: We would like to inform you that we are not able to cover the recent visit by a Supreme Court justice due to numerous publication restraints. We will publish a relevant article, as well as an explanation of the regrettable delay, in issue 3. -Eds"
That non-explanation of the justice-as-editor-in-chief's demand caught the attention of a great many students, and not just at Dalton. Many observers of the court recall that Kennedy is regarded as "one of the court's most vigilant defenders of the First Amendment," as a larger New York newspaper of considerable repute put it. One of the U.S. Supreme Court's most famous decisions, years prior to Kennedy's joining it, was its refusal to sanction a prior restraint on the news media's right to publish the Pentagon Papers.
Earlier this week, The New York Times reported, Kennedy's office received and returned the same day the Daltonian's account of his appearance accompanied with what a court information officer said was "a couple of minor tweaks" that "tidied up" the story to more accurately reflect Kennedy's meaning.
We should add that at least Kennedy allowed some coverage of his remarks. Other justices, including Antonin Scalia and newbie Sonia Sotomayor, have closed their remarks to the press. Sotomayor spoke to 1,000 people at Yale Law School, but the audience was closed to journalists.
You might think closed speeches were dangerous stuff. We don't know, of course, but according to the Times, Kennedy called Isaac Newton "the poster boy for the Enlightenment" and George Washington "the poster boy for the Constitution." You can see why Kennedy wouldn't want that kind of stuff to get around.
Frank LoMonte, director of the Student Press Law Center, says Kennedy sent the wrong message. "That's not the teaching of journalism," he told the Times. "That's an exercise in image control."
Unfortunately for Kennedy, his image is now that of control freak - or worse yet, overbearing editor. Egad.
