Inside The New York Times’ expanded Supreme Court coverage

As a member of The New York Times’ SCOTUS team, Investigative Reporter Jodi Kantor aims to “illuminate the Supreme Court” and its Justices. (Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

We’re lucky to have Roz Helderman, who just came from The Washington Post, as our editor, and Ann Marimow and Abbie VanSickle as very close colleagues. We’re trying to build a new way of covering and understanding the Court.”

Jodi Kantor

The Supreme Court — a famously secretive and cloistered institution — reshaped law and culture in recent years. Thankfully, on behalf of the public, there are journalists committed to illuminating the Court and connecting the dots between Court actions and American life.

In April, E&P virtually met with two members of The New York Times’ expanded SCOTUS team — Adam Liptak, chief legal affairs correspondent, and Investigative Journalist Jodi Kantor — who spoke about the privilege, challenges and necessity of covering the nation’s highest Court.

Adam Liptak’s professional affiliation with The New York Times started back in the mid-‘80s, when he worked as a “copy boy.” After law school, he returned to The Times’ corporate legal department as a summer clerk and was later hired as a libel attorney. In 2002, Executive Editor Howell Raines recruited Liptak for the newsroom. And in 2008, at the behest of Linda Greenhouse, who covered SCOTUS for nearly three decades, Liptak moved to Washington to cover the Supreme Court — from decisions to hear cases to oral arguments, opinions and the Court’s culture.

As part of the expanded SCOTUS team, Liptak collaborates with other members on investigations. He also authors “The Docket,” a weekly newsletter that promises to “make sense of legal developments in a turbulent time.”

Jodi Kantor describes herself as a “law-school dropout,” but that proved to be journalism’s gain. Her investigative work is renowned. Kantor and Megan Twohey were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their reporting on Harvey Weinstein.

Adam Liptak, chief legal affairs correspondent at The New York Times, authors a weekly newsletter about the American judicial system, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kantor recounted joining the SCOTUS team: “One night in April of 2022, I got a tip about something related to the Court,” she said. “It was too tantalizing not to look into. It was about a former anti-abortion activist — a very extreme religious leader — who wanted to make a kind of public confession about a secret lobbying effort he had put together at the Supreme Court. And the story he had to tell was quite something.

“It was about how he had drafted wealthy donors, evangelical Christians and Catholics to befriend the Justices, and in the guise of a social relationship, try to stiffen their spines on abortion rulings. The idea of a secret influence effort is just totally contrary to the way our court system is supposed to work. The idea that such a thing was even possible, that the Court was permeable in that way, was wild to think about.”

Kantor said it was an eye-opening experience — how much the Court operates “in the dark.”

For more than 18 years, Adam Liptak has reported on the U.S. Supreme Court and American justice system for The New York Times. In his role as chief legal affairs correspondent, he collaborates with the team on investigative stories and authors “The Docket,” a weekly newsletter exploring “legal developments in a turbulent time.” (Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

She and Liptak have also collaborated on an investigation into the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision and reported on Chief Justice Roberts’ influence over cases related to January 6.

Though they describe the Court as “a culture of complete silence,” they’re able to glean a lot of information from what’s in public view — majority opinions and dissents — and translate it into real-life consequences.

Liptak said, “There is an enormous appetite for these stories. … The paper’s commitment to building out the team seems to be paying great dividends.”

Kantor recalled a recent reader comment, crediting her reporting for humanizing the Justices.

Left: Reporter Abbie VanSickle covers the U.S. Supreme Court for The New York Times. (Photo courtesy of The New York Times); Right: Ann E. Marimow covers the U.S. Supreme Court from The New York Times’ Washington, D.C., bureau. (Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley)

“There is so much pomp. There’s a lot of marble. There’s a lot of red velvet. There’s a lot of legal language that is extremely intimidating and hard to understand. But I think, particularly when somebody is holding power for that long, the question of what kind of person they are is incredibly important,” Kantor said.

“We’re lucky to have Roz Helderman, who just came from The Washington Post, as our editor, and Ann Marimow and Abbie VanSickle as very close colleagues,” Kantor said. “We’re trying to build a new way of covering and understanding the Court.”

Gretchen A. Peck is E&P’s editor-in-chief. She welcomes your emails at editor@editorandpublisher.com.