Security of justices focus of lawsuit

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was confronted at a Washington-area airport last month by a reporter for a celebrity website who asked him about his favorite books and movies.

In video of the interaction, Breyer looks mildly amused.

The two men with him don’t.

Those somber folks, his security detail, are the subject of a lawsuit filed recently in federal court in Washington.

Gabe Roth, executive director of court transparency group Fix the Court, wants to know more about the justices’ protection when they leave Washington.

Roth submitted a Freedom of Information Act request more than a year ago seeking information about the justices’ 2015 travels, making the request a few months after Justice Antonin Scalia died while on a hunting trip in Texas.

While at a resort ranch there, Scalia had declined protection from the U.S. Marshals Service, which shares responsibility for the justices' security with Supreme Court police.

Roth says he wants to see the guidelines that explain the circumstances under which marshals travel with a justice outside of Washington, information about the out-of-town trips the justices took accompanied by marshals in July 2015 and information about Scalia’s Texas trip.

Roth says he paid a $240 fee associated with his request, but hasn’'t yet received information.

For the record, at the airport, Breyer recommended the “The Big Sick.” He said one of his top three movies of all time was “Groundhog Day.”
 

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