From Justice Kennedy, a Lesson in Journalism
Frederick Noronha
November 11, 2009
From Justice Kennedy, a Lesson in Journalism
By ADAM LIPTAK
WASHINGTON — The school newspaper at Dalton, a private school in
Manhattan, contained a cryptic note from its editors last Friday.
“We are not able to cover the recent visit by a Supreme Court justice
due to numerous publication constraints,” the note said. It promised
“an explanation of the regrettable delay” in the next issue.
It turns out that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, widely regarded as one
of the court’s most vigilant defenders of First Amendment values, had
provided the newspaper, The Daltonian, with a lesson about
journalistic independence. Justice Kennedy’s office had insisted on
approving any article about a talk he gave to an assembly of Dalton
high school students on Oct. 28.
Kathleen Arberg, the court’s public information officer, said Justice
Kennedy’s office had made the request to make sure the quotations
attributed to him were accurate.
The justice’s office received a draft of the proposed article on
Monday and returned it to the newspaper the same day with “a couple of
minor tweaks,” Ms. Arberg said. Quotations were “tidied up” to better
reflect the meaning the justice had intended to convey, she said.
Ms. Arberg indicated that what had happened at Dalton was unusual.
“Justice Kennedy does not have a general policy for making such
requests,” she said. “The request was most likely made by a member of
his staff in an effort to be helpful.” Justice Kennedy declined a
request for an interview.
Ellen Stein, Dalton’s head of school, defended the practice in a
telephone interview. “This allows student publications to be correct,”
she said. “I think fact checking is a good thing.”
But Frank D. LoMonte, the executive director of the Student Press Law
Center, questioned the school’s approach. “Obviously, in the
professional world, it would be a nonstarter if a source demanded
prior approval of coverage of a speech,” he said. Even at a high
school publication, Mr. LoMonte said, the request for prepublication
review sent the wrong message and failed to appreciate the
sophistication of high school seniors.
“These are people who are old enough to vote,” he said. “If you’re old
enough to drive a tank, you’re old enough to write a headline.”
Kevin Slick, The Daltonian’s faculty adviser, said in an e-mail
message that “the high school administration communicated a lengthy
list of ‘dos’ and ‘do nots’ for Justice Kennedy’s visit.”
The Daltonian “believed we could not publish anything without the
approval of Justice Kennedy” or his office, Mr. Slick said, adding
that “the series of constraints placed on his visit and subsequent
interaction did not diminish the experience at all.”
The article itself, by Kristian Bailey, a Dalton senior and one of the
paper’s editors in chief, is a straightforward account of Justice
Kennedy’s biography and his wide-ranging remarks. The article is
expected to be published in the paper’s next issue. Editors at The
Daltonian either would not comment for this article or did not respond
to requests for an interview, although a staff member provided a draft
of The Daltonian’s article.
At the assembly, Justice Kennedy discussed the separation of powers,
federalism, Isaac Newton (“the poster boy for the Enlightenment”) and
George Washington (“the poster boy for the Constitution”), according
to the article. One student quoted in the article expressed
disappointment that Justice Kennedy had not had time to answer the
written questions students had been asked to submit.
It is not unusual for Supreme Court justices to exclude the press
entirely from public appearances. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, for
instance, spoke to more than 1,000 people at Yale Law School last
month in an off-the-record session that was closed to the news media.
But Mr. LoMonte said the demand from Justice Kennedy’s office crossed a line.
“It’s a request that shouldn’t have been made,” he said. “That’s not
the teaching of journalism. That’s an exercise in image control.”
Via the SAJA list...