Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye not. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a complex man. When he goes out for public speaking engagements, he generally insists that his comments not be televised or sometimes even recorded — even when he was in Cleveland last year to receive the City Club’s Citadel of Free Speech Award.

In April, Scalia was in Hattiesburg, Miss., to give talks at a high school and a college. A couple of unforewarned print reporters taped the justice’s remarks, only to have a U.S. marshal step in and force them to erase the recordings — presumably to protect Scalia’s security.

Free press interests sued over the action, which violated the federal Privacy Protection Act. Now the Justice Department concedes its agent erred and the plaintiffs are entitled to collect $1,000 each in damages plus their court costs.

But there’s one thing the Justice Department won’t concede: whether it should be enjoined from doing the same thing again. You never know when Justice Scalia next will be threatened with being seen or heard.

Cold warriors get cold shoulder. Four years ago, the U.S. government finally took responsibility for the radiation-related illnesses of thousands of workers who toiled at the nation’s nuclear weapons plants.

Or so it said.

Due to bureaucratic nightmares in the compensation program, few of the tens of thousands of claims have been settled. Congress and the Bush administration vowed to solve the problem, but barring quick action, it looks like a solution will be postponed until the next congressional session.

Of the more than 100,000 people who have worked at Hanford Nuclear Reservation since 1944, thousands have been exposed to radiation as they made plutonium, analyzed nuclear waste and disposed of radioactive garbage. Some developed radiation-related cancers.

The victims have waited for decades. Many have died.

Before the government confessed that it was responsible for exposing workers to radiation, it would meet the victims’ complaints with silence and inaction. Apparently, old habits are hard to break.