Free the Press!

The Associated Press and the Mississippi paper Hattiesburg American filed a lawsuit "against the U.S. Marshals Service over an incident in April in which a federal marshal erased reporters' recordings of a speech Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave to high school students" about the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit alleges the marshal "violated due process and the constitutional protections from unreasonable search and seizure." Saying "the government's power is overwhelming," Associated Press President Tom Curley announced plans to form a "media advocacy center to lobby in Washington for open government." Curley said the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Society of Professional Journalists and others would be invited to help "seek better statutory guarantees for more accessible government information."