ABC News Tries to Slime Justice Scalia

Fire of Liberty

While ABC News' "Nightline," was blasting a story on the airwaves about Justice Scalia committing an ethical scandal by attending a Federalist society legal seminar and forgoing Chief Justice Roberts swearing in for a "junket" and "tennis," it seems that the so called researchers failed to report the facts about the event accurately. (Who'd ever think that the folks at ABC would ever try to slime a sitting Supreme Court Justice like Scalia. I bet you'd never find such stories on Ginsberg and Stevens but then again they're on the same team.) Thankfully, Robert B. Bluey at Human Events seem to be on top of the story and has a bevy of information in the following article that the editors of "Nightline" seemed to have left out (It had to be lost by chance, right?) While it's good for you to read the whole story, I thought I'd give you a brief look at what really happened on Justice Scalia's visit to the lecture:

Federalist Society Executive Vice President Leonard Leo released the following information Tuesday in response to the ABC News report about Justice Antonin Scalia'’s attendance at a Federalist Society-sponsored legal seminar last September.

Justice Scalia...Teaches A Course The Facts

1. Justice Scalia taught a comprehensive course about the separation of powers under our Constitution. Reminiscent of Dan Rather'’s and Mary Mapes'’s false National Guard story, ABC Nightline knew in advance of airing its program that he did not simply "“attend" a "“judicial education seminar, "” and it grossly misled viewers by suggesting that the event was a "“junket"” rather than a serious scholarly program that required much work and advance preparation.

Justice Scalia taught a 10-hour course while in Colorado, lecturing the more than 100 lawyers in attendance as well as answering numerous questions they presented.

• • Prior to the course, Justice Scalia produced a 481-page course book containing edited cases on separation of powers issues. All attendees received the book in advance and were expected to review the material and prepare in advance of the course.
  

• Justice Scalia arrived and left Colorado without spending any extra days to engage in recreational activity. He arrived at the hotel the night before the course at 11 p.m., having traveled by car for three hours the night before. He departed at around 6:30 a.m. the morning after the course ended in order to fly back home. The event started at 8 a.m. each of the mornings, and, despite ABC NightlineÂ’s emphasis on Justice Scalia participating in tennis at the hotel, he spent less than two hours playing the game over the course of those two days.
  

• Justice Scalia presented the course with LSU Law Professor John Baker. Both were present together on the rostrum for the ten hour course, and both received reimbursement for travel and lodging.
  

• John Baker received an honorarium. Justice Scalia did not.
  

2. Justice Scalia did not attend Chief Justice Roberts'’s swearing-in ceremony at the White House on September 29 because he chose to respect a longstanding commitment to teach a course to over 100 lawyers who had traveled from at least 38 states. This was not, as Nightline suggested, missing an important Washington function so as not to miss a tennis outing.

• • There was virtually no advance notice that John Roberts would be confirmed and sworn-in on September 29. It was not absolutely clear until the day before.
  

• Justice Scalia had accepted the invitation to teach on October 10, 2004——nearly a year before the course dates. Almost all participants had registered and paid for the course by August 2005, nearly two months in advance.
  

• • To have cancelled just a couple of days before the start of the course would have caused many attendees to lose the money the spent on plane tickets and hotel deposits, and, as the sponsor, the Federalist Society would have faced tens of thousands of dollars in damages that would have to be paid to the hotel for breaking a contract.
  

3. Justice Scalia was teaching a scholarly program that was educationally rigorous and open to anyone who wanted to come.

• The course was approved by at least 30 state bars for continuing legal education credit. Most of the lawyers in attendance have to take such accredited continuing legal education programs in order to remain licensed to practice law.
  

• The Federalist Society welcomed anyone who wished to come to the event. Members simply were asked to pay the registration fee, and non-members were welcome to attend if they paid the Society'’s nominal dues ($5 for students, $25 for lawyers) along with the registration fee. Indeed, at least 10 of those who came to the course were non-members who joined and paid the registration fee in order to attend.
  

• More than 100 lawyers and law students were in attendance.
  

4. ABC Nightline was fully aware that its piece was misleading and inaccurate, and the way in which it prepared the story bespeaks hypocrisy.

• Several hours before the program aired, the Federalist Society spoke with Nightline'’s senior producer, David Scott, as well as the investigative reporter who worked on the story, Rhonda Schwartz. The Federalist Society set forth the above facts and made very clear that tennis occupied a miniscule part of Justice ScaliaÂ’s time in Colorado. Nightline nevertheless chose to lead with a "“tennis outing" theme and grossly failed to present the facts surrounding the course in a way that demonstrated the amount of time and work involved.
  

• At least a week before this conversation, the Federalist Society had spoken with Rhonda Schwartz and informed her in explicit terms that Justice Scalia taught a 10-hour course attended by lawyers. Nonetheless, ABC'’s website, on the night of the broadcast, cast the issue as Justice Scalia attending a judicial education seminar. There is a world of difference between teaching a 10-hour course and coming to a resort to hear other speakers between various recreational activities——but Nightline chose to manufacture the false impression that Justice Scalia was at a function that entailed much play and little work.
  

• It is ironic that, in preparing a story that seeks to make the point that judges should be held to high standards of ethical integrity, ABC itself broke the law by trespassing on private property and invading the privacy of private individuals who did not give permission to be videotaped. Indeed, ABC contacted the hotel for permission to film the SocietyÂ’s activities, and permission was denied by hotel management.
  

You'd think that the reporters at ABC could at least use the skills of reporting they learned in our "wonderful" journalism schools to report the facts instead of the gotcha politics they seem to pull day in and day out. Thankfully, we have the powerful blogs, talk radio, FOX News, National Review Online and Human Events Online to sort out the truth that the MSM seems to selectively leave out.

Hat Tip: Southern Appeal