I once wrote a law review article about scandals at the United States Supreme Court. I sent a copy of it to a Supreme Court justice. That justice was Samuel Alito.
I’d told Justice Alito about “Scandal! Early Supreme Court News Coverage and the Justice-Journalist Divide” at a work dinner years ago, and he’d appeared interested, so I sent a copy to his chambers at the Court. The article focuses on the decidedly prickly relationship—especially in the 1800s—between Supreme Court justices and the journalists who covered them.
Journalists once fawned over the justices, writing that the men in their stunningly impressive robes of justice had “elegance, gravity, and neatness” and not daring to question such majesty or investigate further. And then, rather suddenly, the coverage shifted tone: One key justice should comb his “uncomfortable wad of tangled black hair,” another…
