Posted by Orin Kerr:
When Barry Lynn Speaks, Tony Mauro Listens:
Tony Mauro has a [1]new article in Legal Times that begins:
Justice Thomas Finds Himself in Inauguration Controversy
Tony Mauro
Legal Times
02-17-2005
A week before Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist swore
in President George W. Bush to a second term as president last
month, Justice Clarence Thomas presided over a little-noticed
inauguration inside the Court building that has generated some
controversy.
In an invitation-only ceremony, Thomas on Jan. 13 gave the oath
of office to newly elected Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom
Parker. . . .
According to the article, the private swearing in of Justice Parker
generated "some controversy" because Justice Paker is a protege of
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the so-called "Ten Commandments
judge," who defied the federal courts by refusing to comply with
judicial orders to remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse
that hosts the Alabama Supreme Court. The controversial part about
swearing in Parker, according to Mauro, is that the Supreme Court will
be deciding cases this Term on the constitutionality of Ten
Commandment displays. The article suggests that offering symbolic
support to someone who is a close friend of someone closely associated
with the public debate over issues relating to a pending case is
problematic, even if the support was private.
This seemed like a pretty tenuous connection to me, so I re-read the
article to find out who the people are that find this controversial.
As best I can tell, the article's only source for that view is a
single man: Barry Lynn, the executive director of [2]Americans United
for Separation of Church and State. I think it's fair to describe Lynn
as a harsh and regular critic of Justice Thomas. Come to think of it,
I don't think I've ever seen Lynn make a comment about Justice Thomas
that wasn't harshly critical. Maybe it has happened, but if it has it
would be, well, pretty newsworthy.
Here's my question: Is the fact that Barry Lynn objects to something
Justice Thomas did itself worthy of a news story? Perhaps lots of
people see the fact that Justice Thomas would swear in a protege of
Roy Moore as controversial, and Mauro just chose Lynn to quote as
representative of that view. Perhaps there is something else to this
story that was cut out during the editing process. But the story as
written seems to be about Barry Lynn's objections, and only his
objections. Maybe I'm missing something, but this story seems less
about reporting controversy than trying to create it.
References
1. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1108389925967
2. http://www.au.org/
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