From audiotape to duct tape: the New America: The St. Petersburg Times is foursquare for the Constitution and the First Amendment and therefore furious with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for having his federal bodyguards confiscate and erase two reporters’ tape recordings of a supposedly public speech.

A bristling letter from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to the Justice Department instructs that the confiscation not only violates constitutional protections of press freedom but also conflicts with the Privacy Protection Act, a law that restrains law enforcement from seizing the work of the news media except in exceptional cases. Obviously, some retraining is needed. The Marshals Service doesn't seem to understand that it operates under the constraints of the law and the Constitution.

And we know how seriously the government that has its prisoners held, handcuffed, hooded, duct-taped to stretchers and shipped to undisclosed locations for indefinite detention takes editorial opinions seriously.

Yes, there is nothing like a “bristling letter” to bring an outlaw administration to its senses and inspire contrition in the hearts of petty dictators like Scalia. Tyrants and tycoons are trembling everywhere, surely.

Breathe easy, Citoyen, and sleep. While the press’s mighty mastiff bark may have been strangled to a teacup poodle’s yip, it still bravely guards the gates, and its advertising revenues.