Scalia apologizes

last updated 8 January 2015

Hattiesburg, Miss.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia apologized to two Mississippi reporters this week after they were forced by a federal marshal to erase recordings of a speech Scalia made at a Hattiesburg high school. Newspaper editorials accused Scalia of trampling the freedom of the press, and noted with irony a line in his speech lamenting that many Americans didn’t properly “revere” the Constitution. Scalia said he had not ordered the tapes seized, and wrote to one media group that he was “as upset as you are.” Scalia bans the broadcast of his speeches, but said he would authorize writers to tape them to “promote accurate reporting.” Reporter Antoinette Konz of The Hattiesburg American said that was good enough for her. “I accept his apology,” she said.