From Justice Kennedy, a Lesson in Journalism

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, widely regarded as one of the court's most vigilant defenders of First Amendment values, had provided the newspaper, insisted on approving any article about a talk he gave to an assembly of Dalton high school students on Oct. 28. Kathleen Arberg, the court's public information officer, said Justice Kennedy's office had made the request to make sure the quotations attributed to him were accurate. 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," Ms. Arberg said. Quotations were "tidied up" to better reflect the meaning the justice had intended to convey, she said. Ms. Arberg indicated that what had happened at Dalton was unusual.