On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri. Justices Kavanaugh and Kagan–who both worked in the White House–stated that it was fairly common for government officials to "berate" the press.
Justice Kavanaugh observed that "experienced government press people throughout the federal government . . .. regularly call up the media and berate them." Later, Justice Kavanuagh asked if "traditional, everyday communications would suddenly be deemed problematic"? Justice Kagan added that "like Justice Kavanaugh, I've had some experience encouraging press to suppress their own speech." Whereas Kavanaugh referred to "government press people," Kagan spoke in the first person about her own calls to the press. Kagan explained that "this happens literally thousands of times a day in the federal government." And she offered what such a phone call would sound like:
"You just wrote about editorial. Here are the five reasons you shouldn't write another one. You just wrote a story that's filled with factual errors. Here are the 10 reasons why you shouldn't do that again."
