'It's' an Issue in Story Review Instigated by Justice Kennedy's Office
A new staffer who works for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy demanded the right to review quotations by student publications at two schools, it turns out.
The review of a story about an Oct. 15 George Washington University speech resulted in a request to change the contraction “it’s” to “it is,” according to a student journalist who spoke to the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.).
Previously just one incident came to light: a demand to review for accuracy any story published about Kennedy’s Oct. 28 comments at the Dalton School in Manhattan. Kennedy told the Wall Street Journal he was unaware the request had been made, and assumed an e-mail seeking comment on a story was sent at students’ own initiative.
Now the Wall Street Journal reports that Kennedy’s office also demanded the right to review stories about his lecture at George Washington University’s law school. Student radio station WRGW obliged. News director Jesse Regis told the newspaper that a go-between—a law school public relations official—asked him for just one change: to write “it is” rather than “it’s.”
Kennedy said he was unaware of the demand and also thought a student reporter was merely checking the accuracy of a transcription. “They got it about right,” Kennedy told the Wall Street Journal. He said he made a few minor changes and “didn’t think much more about it.”
It isn’t clear whether Kennedy himself asked that the contraction be changed.
A different George Washington publication ran an account of Kennedy’s speech that turned out to be incorrect. The online Daily Colonial wrote that “Kennedy’s opinion is often the swing vote when the court is split. ‘I never read a brief I couldn’t go down the middle on,’ said Kennedy.” The publication later removed the passage after the Supreme Court Information Office said Kennedy was actually commenting on lengthy briefs. The actual quote should have been, “I never read a brief I couldn’t put down in the middle.”
A prior ABAJournal.com story noted the misquote, and suggested it may have been the impetus for the prepublication review request at the Dalton School.
