Open & Shut

A collection of notable quotations

From the Summer 2010 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 28.

“I think people should be able to write anything that they want about me, and I don’t think that I should be able to sue them for libel.”

– Elena Kagan to Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. during confirmation hearings

“Running a democracy takes a certain amount of civil courage. The First Amendment does not protect you from criticism, or even nasty phone calls.”

– Justice Antonin Scalia, during oral arguments in Doe v. Reed over whether the identities of petition signers should be released.

“A lot of journalism is invasion of privacy. What can I say?”

– Wendell Jamieson, metro editor at The New York Times

“It’s hugely embarrassing that other countries are passing laws to protect their citizens from libel actions in our high court. English libel lawyers claim that libel tourism is not a problem, if this is the case why has President Obama just signed into law a measure to protect his citizens from our courts?”

– Jonathan Heawood, the director of English PEN

“Applying the Fourth Amendment to new technologies may sometimes be difficult, but when it is necessary to decide a case we have no choice … [t]he-times-they-are-a-changin’ is a feeble excuse for disregard of duty.”

-Justice Antonin Scalia in deciding whether public employers can read employee test messages.