Reporters entitled to record Scalia, government says

U.S. marshal was wrong to erase a tape of his speech

By Ron Harrist
Associated Press

JACKSON, MISS. - The government has conceded that the U.S. Marshals Service violated federal law when a marshal ordered reporters with the Associated Press and the Hattiesburg American to erase their recordings of a speech by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. 

The Justice Department said the reporters and their employers are each entitled to $1,000 in damages and reasonable attorneys' fees, which had been sought by the media organizations. The concessions were contained in court papers filed Friday in response to a lawsuit by the news organizations.

While agreeing the federal Privacy Protection Act forbids the seizure of the work product of a journalist, the government said the plaintiffs were not entitled to an injunction that would bar the Marshals Service from a repeat of the incident.

The lawsuit filed in May will continue on the outstanding issues, including the request for an injunction, Leonard Van Slyke, a lawyer for the AP, said Tuesday.

During an April 7 speech at a high school in Hattiesburg, a deputy federal marshal, Melanie Rube, demanded that AP reporter Denise Grones and Hattiesburg American reporter Antoinette Konz erase recordings of the justice's remarks. The reporters had not been told before the speech that they could not use tape recorders.

When Grones resisted, the marshal took the digital recorder out of her hands. The reporter then showed Rube how to erase the recording.

Rube then demanded that Konz hand over her tape. Konz surrendered it and, after the speech, was able to get it back only after she erased the recording in front of the marshal.

The exchange occurred in the front row of the school auditorium while Scalia spoke on the Constitution. Scalia later said he would make it clear in the future that recording his remarks for the use of the print media would not be a problem.