] Ms. Konz and a reporter for The Associated Press, Denise
] Grones, were seated in the front row. They began to take
] notes. And when Justice Scalia began speaking, they
] clicked on their tape recorders.

The irony here is the kind that makes you feel sick inside.

] But this is the United States in the 21st century where
] the power brokers have gone mad. They've deluded
] themselves into thinking they're royalty, not public
] servants charged with protecting the rights and interests
] of the people. Both recordings were erased. Only then was
] the reporters' property returned.

This was a public speaking engagement. It was at a High School. Its not like this was someone recording a gathering among friends, or some clear gray area where there might have been some ability to exercise "privacy rights".

] When agents acting on behalf of a Supreme Court justice
] can just snatch and destroy information collected by
] reporters, we haven't just thumbed our nose at the
] Constitution, we've taken a very dangerous step in a very
] ugly direction. The depot at the end of that dark road is
] totalitarianism.

The above quote saves me having to come up with and type something to express similar sentiment. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know if Justice Scalia does the same, he would prefer I not pass it along..

] "It protects journalists not just from newsroom searches,"
] she said, "but from the seizure of their work product
] material, things like notes and drafts, and also what's
] called documentary materials, which are things like these
] tapes, or digital recordings."

I guess the lesson here is that if you have a recording device on site, make sure its storage is located in a place fully within your control, several blocks away. The lesson is noted, the spectrum and services are there to do it several ways "legally". In that shitty future we keep hearing bits and pieces about, when public officials engage in public speaking engagements, will we have to square off SIGINT and IA chops with the Senior Services on hand?

] Ms. Konz told me: "All I was doing with that tape recorder
] was making sure that I was not going to misquote the
] justice. My only intention was to report his words accurately."

I'd really like to hear Scalia's justification for not allowing people to record him at large gatherings.

NYT Op-Ed: A Justice's Sense of Privilege