Chief Justice Uses ‘Crafty’ Example in Arguments on Corporate Privacy
AT&T lawyer Geoffrey Klineberg ran into some tough questioning on Wednesday when he urged the U.S. Supreme Court to exempt his client from the Freedom of Information Act.
The Washington Post opens its story on the oral arguments this way: “It might be an understatement to say the Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed skeptical that corporations have ‘personal privacy’ rights that would prevent the government from releasing documents about them. At times, the justices were almost mocking in their questions.” The National Law Journal and the New York Times also have stories.
A federal appeals court had ruled that corporations could use the FOIA exemption that allows documents to be withheld to protect “personal privacy. The appeals court had noted the FOIA law defined “person” to include corporations.
But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the definition of “person” doesn’t necessarily correlate with the definition of “personal.” He offered several examples in which the meaning of an adjective is different than the root noun.
“You have craft and crafty,” he said at page 35 of the transcript (PDF). “Totally different. Crafty doesn’t have much to do with craft. Squirrel, squirrelly. Right? I mean, pastor—you have a ‘pastor’ and ‘pastoral.’ Same root, totally different.”
Previous coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Do Corporations Have Personal Privacy Rights? Supreme Court Set to Decide”
