Open Policy?

Has the current Supreme Court finally
realized that being so secretive is not
what the founding fathers had in mind
when they where creating this country
and that they were not beyond the scrutiny
of the American people?


There's Antonin Scalia chatting with Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes." There's Scalia speaking at length on National Public Radio. And there he is again, taking questions from high school students on C-SPAN.

Picture Greta Garbo joining Facebook, and you get the idea.

Until now, the Supreme Court justice has been notoriously averse to associating with the media. He has often excluded them from public appearances, even barring C-SPAN from covering an award he received in 2003 for protecting freedom of speech. In an incident a year later, federal marshals guarding Scalia at a speech in Mississippi confiscated and erased a reporter's tape recorder, deleting the justice's comments. Then, in 2006, he brushed away a Boston reporter with a gesture that some said was obscene.

But this apparently is a new day, and not just for Scalia, but for other members of the high court.

Seven months ago, Justice Clarence Thomas, a fierce critic of the media ever since Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegations against him during his 1991 Senate confirmation hearings, also appeared on "60 Minutes," tooling around in his RV with correspondent Steve Kroft. He also took ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg to a football practice at the University of Nebraska, and he sat down with conservative talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

Thomas' turnaround may be even more stunning than Scalia's. After all, not only has he resisted speaking to the media, he hasn't even said a word during oral arguments in more than two years.

But then again, Thomas, like Scalia, had a book to promote.

Traditionally, Supreme Court justices rarely gave interviews and never appeared on television. Information about the inner workings of the court was zealously guarded. The clerks who worked for the justices were sworn to secrecy, and when a behind-the-scenes book occasionally emerged, it was often viewed as unseemly.

For most Americans with an interest in the court, their only chance to watch a justice talk about himself or his judicial philosophy was during his Senate confirmation hearing, before he or she was on the court.

But there are signs of a thaw. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared on the "60 Minutes" segment on Scalia, talking about her friendship with him. Justice Stephen G. Breyer has given interviews to NPR and CNN. A profile of Justice John Paul Stevens appeared last year in the New York Times Magazine, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy recently granted an audience to Newsweek. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appeared in a PBS documentary on the court.

This Article Continues Here

Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/