Justices and Journalists

Justices and Journalists examines whether justices are becoming more publicity-conscious and why that might be happening. The book discusses the motives of justices 'going public' and details their recent increased number of television and print interviews and amount of press coverage of their speeches. The book describes the interactions justices have with the journalists who cover them. These interactions typically are not discussed publicly by justices or journalists. The book explains why justices care about press and public relations, how they employ external strategies to affect press portrayals of themselves and their institution, and how and why journalists participate in that interaction. Drawing on the papers of Supreme Court justices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the book examines these interactions over the history of the Court. It includes a content analysis of print and broadcast media coverage of Supreme Court justices covering a 40-year period from 1968 to 2007.

ISBN 0521879256   Pages 264 ISBN13 9780521879255 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 470 Publisher Cambridge University Press   Published in Cambridge Imprint Cambridge University Press   Height (mm) 228 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 152 Publication date 14 Feb 2011   Spine width (mm) 18 DEWEY 347.732634   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

1. External strategies; 2. The pressure to go public; 3. The early years; 4. The nineteenth century; 5. The twentieth century; 6. Becoming newsworthy; 7. The twenty-first century.

"Supreme Court justices like to cultivate an image of being aloof and apart from politics and the media. Richard Davis' eye-opening book offers ample proof that to varying degrees, justices have engaged with journalists and politicians throughout American history. The Court's lofty mystique will never be the same." - Tony Mauro Supreme Court correspondent for The National Law Journal, has covered the Supreme Court for more than 30 years "With the Justices now regularly writing books, publicly debating constitutional issues, and sitting for media interviews, Justices and Journalists could not be more timely. It's a path-breaking study that will generate discussion, debate, and research over the questions of how and why Justices "go public"---and whether they should in the first place." Lee Epstein Henry Wade Rogers Professor Northwestern University School of Law "While 'going public' has rarely been seen as a strategic option for Supreme Court justices wishing to reveal themselves, in Justices and Journalists Richard Davis explains the increasing willingness of contemporary justices to do just that. In his fascinating account, Davis combines historical study with empirical analysis to reveal the panoply of motivations, personal, political and institutional, that have altered significantly judicial norms into the 21st century. This is rich scholarly work that will plant the seeds for continuing research while offering countless examples ripe for our classrooms. By focusing largely on the justices themselves, Davis leaves the reader with a better understanding of the seeming irony that, as most studies of media coverage of the Supreme Court have revealed, while coverage of the Court, per se, continues to dissipate, the justices, themselves, continue to be more newsworthy." - Elliott Slotnick Professor, Department of Political Science The Ohio State University

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