法律事件
记者为最高法院最近的任期提供见解
2024年7月22日
从左到右:约翰·弗里兹, 马克·谢尔曼, 阿比VanSickle, 大卫·萨维奇, 艾米豪, 主持人亚瑟·斯皮策
当美国.S. Supreme Court issues controversial decisions, the work of lawyers 和 journalists intersects. Although both professions assess the High Court from different perspectives, 它们相互通报对法院影响的理解. At “最高法院:从记者席上看，由华盛顿靠谱的滚球平台委员会于7月8日在阿诺德举办 & 行李搬运工人, journalists explained to legal professionals what they found most meaningful 和 interesting in the Supreme Court’s 2023–2024 term.
亚瑟·斯皮策，美国公民自由联盟高级靠谱的滚球平台.C., 主持了五名记者的小组讨论, 包括艾米·豪, who publishes “Howe on the Court” on the internet 和 reports for SCOTUSblog, 和 纽约时报 最高法院记者阿比VanSickle，两人都有法律学位. “尽管有几位小组成员是靠谱的滚球平台, this is not a panel of litigators analyzing the cases … Our plan is to talk about the Court as an institution 和 as a collection of individuals, 以及记者如何报道最高法院,斯皮策说.
The journalists first discussed major changes resulting from the p和emic in how the Court h和les oral arguments, 比如提供实时音频.
“I think this has been a huge success for people to be able to listen to the oral argument in real time when there are so few spaces in the courtroom, 即使你能来华盛顿, D.C.Howe说. The Court, however, still does not livestream its opinion announcements. Audio recordings are not available until the fall through the National Archives.
马克·谢尔曼, 谁为美联社报道最高法院, 同意口头辩论的公共利益. 然而，他说这减少了记者的乐趣. He 和 other journalists have to listen attentively 和 type up the coverage outside of the courtroom to keep up with the instantaneous dem和s of live blogs 和 streaming journalism. “争论越重要, the less likely it is I am going to be in the courtroom to actually see the argument because we have to report on it as it is happening,谢尔曼说.
Another change in the COVID era is the opportunity for each justice to have a turn at questions — seriatim questioning — compared to the traditional rapid-fire questioning from multiple justices. Howe said that experienced advocates “really like it because they … know that no stone is going to go left unturned. If the justice has a question, they will have an opportunity to answer it.” The downside is that seriatim questioning can lead to very long argument sessions. Howe mentioned as an example the NetChoice arguments involving Florida 和 Texas laws regulating social media content, 持续了四个多小时.
转移话题, Spitzer said the justices generally claim in public that they get along personally, 他问小组成员是否觉得这是真的. “So, I guess I think it is pretty much beside the point, whether or not they get along. 这是他们在案件中出现的地方, 当然, 这真的很重要,约翰·弗里兹说, 谁为CNN报道最高法院. But he sensed this is not a Court with the deep friendships that characterized Supreme 法院 in the past. Fritze did note a sense of civility between Justices Sotomayor 和 Amy Coney 酒吧rett at a recent public event, but he also relayed Sotomayor’s anecdote about the justices uttering sharp comments. Fritze said that it’s “what you would expect when issues of this magnitude are being debated among people who have really very different ideas” about what the law should say.
The journalists also explored their drive to convey the real-life effects of disputes heard before the Supreme Court. 不管是范思克尔还是大卫·萨维奇 洛杉矶时报 报道最高法院的记者讨论了他们对 俄勒冈州格兰特帕斯市诉. 约翰逊, which involved people who are unhoused challenging local ordinances prohibiting camping out in public 和 imposing civil 和 criminal punishments. 大法官尼尔·戈萨奇(Neil Gorsuch)撰写了这一决定, which reversed the Ninth Circuit decision that the Oregon law violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel 和 unusual punishment. 索托马约尔大法官写了一份充满激情的异议, 声明:“本法庭, 太, has a role to play in faithfully enforcing the Constitution to prohibit punishing the very existence of those without shelter. 我仍然希望在不久的将来的某一天, this Court will play its role in safeguarding constitutional liberties for the most vulnerable among us.”
Before the Court’s decision, VanSickle traveled to Grants Pass to interview people without housing. “It seemed to me there was a really rich story to be done about not only this town, 但所有城镇都面临着类似的问题, VanSickle说. She also wanted to explore the consequences for those without housing 和 local governments if the justices found that the effect of the ordinances was not cruel 和 unusual punishment. VanSickle added that being a journalist enabled her to “actually tell the story through people who are experiencing homelessness, which I think is one of the most important things that journalists are able to do.”
Savage also wrote a few stories about Grants Pass, connecting it to homelessness in Washington, D.C. “One of the things I found very curious about this case — both from the Supreme Court’s point of view 和 the way the press covered it — is that California 和 the West Coast states were under a rule that didn’t apply to the rest of the country,萨维奇说. “(市长)穆丽尔·鲍泽(Muriel Bowser)执行了民主党的法案.C. 法律规定你不能在人行道上露营.”
与D对话.C. 事后酒吧, 克里斯蒂娜•杰克逊, 华盛顿靠谱的滚球平台委员会的执行董事, said this panel discussion is notable in part because the journalists offer unique insights into how the justices interact, 他们的关系如何影响法院的判决, 以及这些决定对现实生活的影响. “With the journalists talking about the issues that surrounded the justices, 不仅仅是法律上的决定, 以及记者提供信息的方式，但仍保持尊重, 我认为今年很精彩, 特别是,杰克逊说.
