Did Fat Tony Order U.S. Marshals to Violate The Law?

"A federal marshal who required two reporters to erase audiotapes of a speech by Justice Antonin Scalia at a Mississippi high school on Wednesday may have violated the law, legal experts said yesterday.

Justice Scalia does not typically allow audio or video recorders at his speeches, though he often allows print reporters to attend and take notes. Imposing such conditions ahead of time for speeches in private settings generally creates no legal problems, the legal experts said. But seizing or destroying a reporter's notes or tapes afterward in the absence of an announced ban may violate a federal law and the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches, they said.

The reporters involved in the incident at Presbyterian Christian High School in Hattiesburg had been invited. They openly taped Justice Scalia's speech and were confronted by a deputy marshal, Melanie Rube, during a question-and-answer session afterward.

The journalists and the United States Marshals Service, which provides security for Supreme Court justices when they travel, offered differing accounts of precisely what happened next.

Antoinette Konz, who covered the speech for The Hattiesburg American, adamantly denied having been told of a taping ban. Her tape would confirm her account, Ms. Konz said, had she not been forced to erase it.

Ms. Rube, the deputy who confronted the reporters, declined to comment.

Nehemiah Flowers, the United States marshal in Jackson, Miss., said the reporters had been advised of the ban 'intermittently, individually.'

'It is my understanding that Deputy Rube did not touch anyone and asked politely if they would erase the tape,' Mr. Flowers added.

He denied that such a request was coercive or unlawful. 'We do have that authority,' he said. 'This is a justice of the Supreme Court, and as far as we're concerned, we're following the court's orders.'

In a statement released by the Marshals Service in Washington, a spokeswoman said Ms. Rube's actions "were based on the justice's standing policy prohibiting such recordings of his remarks." -- New York Times, April 9, 2004

Will the Justice Department investigate this alleged violation of the reporters' civil rights and act of prior restraint under color of law, or does it believe that Scalia is above the law? Maybe Nino can rule on this one himself, saying that his ability to render an impartial accquital "cannot reasonably be questioned."

Ironically, during his speech, the thug railed: "I am here to persuade you that our Constitution is something extraordinary, something to revere." Here's the article by Ms. Konz, a courageous American. (She has filed a complaint with Ashcroft J.D., according to this article.) Ms. Konz's e-mail address accompanies her report, should you wish to show your support.