When Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, visited GW Law School in early October, The Hatchet was granted access to the event “with a caveat,” law school spokeswoman Claire Duggan said in an e-mail at the time.
“The Supreme Court’s Public Information Office has asked to approve any quotes you use from the Justice’s speech,” Duggan said. “You can send the quotes and/or article to me and I’ll pass it to them. They’re quite prompt so hopefully for those on a same or next-day deadline, we can get that approved ASAP.”
A month later, The New York Times has reported that Kennedy, who the newspaper notes is “widely regarded as one of the court’s most vigilant defenders of First Amendment values,” made the same request of another student publication, the paper at New York’s Dalton School.
The New York Times reported: “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,’ [Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathleen] Arberg said. Quotations were ‘tidied up’ to better reflect the meaning the justice had intended to convey, she said.”
Our policy allows any source to review – but not revise – their quotes for accuracy before publication if asked, whether the source is a Supreme Court justice or a freshman.
