Journalist Dahlia Lithwick covers the Supreme Court for Slate, the online magazine, and hosts the popular podcast Amicus.
Whereas most court reporting is delivered in legal jargon and targets academics and experts, Lithwick takes a different tack: She writes precisely for those people who know nothing about the judiciary.
It's the exclusivity of the Court (and by extension court reporting), she believes, that prevents people from taking an interest in the fascinating world of the judicial branch.
"Even though I'm trying subtly to undermine the Court's sense of its own decorousness and gravitas, I'm still such a deeply captive Patty Hearst-like lover of the institution."
Her aim is to turn people onto it, and she writes like you would covering any high-stakes game. In fact, she views herself as a sportswriter reporting on the courts.
[pullquote]"For me, the Court is this last bastion of speaking to each other and hearing each other."[/pullquote]
Lithwick's legal background is as entertaining as her approach to law. She began her career clerking for a law firm in Reno, Nev., that largely handled divorces for Elvis chapel-style weddings.
Quickly tiring of helping people "divide their tupperware," she quit her job and began couchsurfing while looking for babysitting gigs. When her reporter friend passed on a chance to cover Supreme Court hearings for the day, Lithwick offered to go in her stead.
Since then, Lithwick has become a popular voice in legal discourse, demystifying the courts for lay people and underscoring the practical consequences of court rulings.
She is currently working on a book about the four female Supreme Court Justices. She describes her views on gender saying, "Like Sandra Day O'Connor I really do feel that women and men are the same and do not come to different conclusions. And like Sandra Day O'Connor, I wish John Roberts had been a woman."
During her recent speaking engagement at Indiana University, Dahlia Lithwick stopped by WFIU studios to talk to Josh Brewer and share anecdotes from her court-side seat.
