 | |
Type of site | Law blog following theSupreme Court of the United States |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | The Dispatch |
| Created by | Tom Goldstein and Amy Howe |
| URL | scotusblog.com |
| Launched | October 1, 2002; 23 years ago (2002-10-01) |
Content license | Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States[a] |
SCOTUSblog is a lawblog written bylawyers,legal scholars, and law students about theSupreme Court of the United States (sometimesabbreviated "SCOTUS"). Formerly sponsored byBloomberg Law and now owned byThe Dispatch, the site tracks cases before the Court from thecertiorari stage through themerits stage.
The sitelive blogs as the Court announces opinions and grants cases, and sometimes has information on the Court's actions published before either the Court or any other news source does.SCOTUSblog frequently hosts symposiums with leading experts on the cases before the Court. The blog comprehensively covers all of the cases argued before the Court and maintains an archive of the briefing and other documents in each case.
The blog's first post was published on October 1, 2002.[2] Founded by Supreme CourtlitigatorTom Goldstein and former litigator Amy Howe, the blog began as a means of promoting their law firm then known as Goldstein & Howe, P.C.[3][4] The blog moved to its current address on February 7, 2005.[5] In the same year, it was featured byBusinessWeek in their weekly blog recommendation.[6] A companionwiki was added in 2007, but its features were subsequently integrated into the blog itself.[7]
In June 2007 the site announced that it was about to experience its single largest daily readership at 100,000 page views per day.[8] The increase in traffic coincided with the Supreme Court's reversal of course on June 29, 2007, when it unexpectedly announced it would hear theGuantanamo Bay detainees' challenges to theMilitary Commissions Act of 2006. A 2008 article in theNew York Law School Law Review estimated that "before the end of the afternoon,SCOTUSblog alone had posted more information about the case than most newspapers provided even the next day."[9] AfterLyle Denniston stepped down as the blog's reporter at the Court in 2016, Amy Howe was named the blog's reporter.[10]
Bloomberg Law began sponsoringSCOTUSblog in 2011, allowing it to fully separate from Goldstein & Howe, P.C.[4]The Dispatch acquiredSCOTUSblog in April 2025.[11][12]
A 2008 article in theNew York Law School Law Review gaveSCOTUSblog as an example of a successful law blog, together withBalkinization and theVolokh Conspiracy, and noted that "with growing numbers of lawyers and legal scholars commenting on breaking legal issues, the blogosphere provides more sophisticated, in-depth analysis of the law than is possible even in a long-form magazine article."[9] Edward Adams, editor and publisher of theAmerican Bar Association'sABA Journal, said thatSCOTUSblog is one of the best law blogs. "It's run by lawyers and they cover the Supreme Court more intensively than any news organization does, and it does a better job, too."[13]
The site is also known for its comprehensive coverage of the nomination and confirmation process for new justices. In 2009Paul Krugman ofThe New York Times wrote of the site's coverage of theSonia Sotomayor nomination, "Without SCOTUS[blog], the whole debate might have been about wise Latina women andNewt [Gingrich]'s Tweets from Auschwitz. Instead, we have some real information getting into the picture."[14]
During the week of theAffordable Care Act hearings at the Supreme Court in March 2012, the site had one million hits owing to its extensive coverage of the arguments in bothlegalese and "InPlain English".Technorati rated the site as one of the 100 most influential blogs. The site is consistently onTechnorati's list of top politics blogs.
SCOTUSblog has received some criticism for potential conflicts of interest concerning Goldstein, his litigation practice, and the blog's coverage of court matters. In 2010, journalistGlenn Greenwald inSalon wrote that the blog's favorable coverage of justices, particularly their confirmation processes, and ongoing cases was a way for Goldstein to curry favor with them for when he would argue before the court.[4] Regarding the confirmation of JusticeElena Kagan, Greenwald described Goldstein as "heaping obsequious praise on every nominee to the Court, while attacking and mocking all of the nominee's critics as ideological extremists, so that when the nominee arrives on the Court and Goldstein appears before them, the new Justice is looking at his or her leading public champion".[15] After Bloomberg began sponsoring the blog, Goldstein stated that"[SCOTUSblog] adopted a series of firewalls, to make sure that the firm and the blog were separate actually and optically" ensuring that no member of Goldstein & Howe could "write about any case in which the firm is involved".[4]
In 2010,SCOTUSblog was the recipient of the ABA'sSilver Gavel award.[16] It is the only blog to receive the award. In 2013,SCOTUSblog received thePeabody Award for excellence in electronic media. It is the first blog to ever receive the Peabody.[17] It also won the 2012Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi) prize for deadline reporting by an independent (non-affiliated) source for its coverage of the announcement of the Supreme Court'sAffordable Care Act decision.[18]