Foreword.

• Author: Reuben, Richard C.
• Position: Symposium: The Art, Craft, and Future of Legal Journalism: A Tribute to Anthony Lewis

It is often said that the rule of law is the cornerstone of a democracy, bringing many virtues to the challenging process of collective self-governance. (1) One of those qualities is notice to citizens of society's formal norms and expectations so they may guide their behavior accordingly.

However, this benefit can only be realized if those norms and expectations are actually communicated to the citizens. After all, if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, what difference does it really make whether it makes a sound? (2)

So, too, with the law. In the United States, our constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, administrative rules, and other forms of law may be written down for all to see and know and debate, but relatively few actually do. Similarly, our courts, legislatures, and administrative processes may be open and free to the public, but who has the time or bothers to attend, besides those with an immediate interest in the matter. (3)

Most people instead rely on others--especially the media--to keep them abreast of what they need to know about legal developments. This educational function is so important to the effective operation of democracy and the rule of law--facilitating broad public participation in its development--that the framers wisely enshrined and protected it in the First Amendment, (4) thus giving rise to what is often considered "The Fourth Estate." (5) As Felix Frankfurter once observed, "The public's confidence in the judiciary hinges on the public's perception of it, and that perception necessarily hinges on the media's portrayal of the legal system." (6)

In the modern era, few performed this function better than Anthony Lewis, the legendary U.S. Supreme Court reporter and columnist for The New York Times, who died in March 2013. (7) A pioneer in the coverage of law and the courts, Lewis is widely credited with being one of the founders of con temporary legal journalism. (8) Through a remarkable career that included two Pulitzer Prizes and five books, Lewis taught by example a generation of journalists how to cover the law with accuracy, insight, perspective, and passion. (9) While the law can often be dry and technical, and cases idiosyncratic, Lewis showed legal journalists how to communicate the issues to readers in a compelling way, demystifying the complexities of law, bringing out the practical importance of the seemingly arcane, and--perhaps most important--making readers care about the law and its role in the world around them.

This artistry is what readers saw on the pages of The Times. But his professional colleagues saw much more in the man behind the bylines. Lewis had a ferocious work ethic that fueled a powerful and penetrating intellect and a knack for being able to put pen to paper with ease. Moreover, in the brusque and highly competitive world of daily journalism, Lewis was the model of class--collegial with the old hands who covered the court and gracious to newcomers seeking his wisdom and blessing.

Lewis and the Court

Despite the relatively paltry salaries, journalists are generally a driven lot, compelled by ego, power, curiosity, and often a desire to make a difference in the world. Anthony Lewis was no different in this respect, other than perhaps by the source of his passion: several deeply held convictions that he appeared to live with every breath. First among them, Lewis believed in the fundamental worth of all people, regardless of color, class, or condition. Although he was not a lawyer by training, he also had a lawyer's faith in the law as a vehicle for assuring equality, human dignity, and basic civil rights for all, as well as an abiding trust that American democracy can work if everyone did their jobs in good faith, including the citizenry. Lewis brought his heart to the task as well, giving his writing a certain moral authority rarely seen in the ostensibly objective world of general interest journalism.

While this may make Lewis sound dreamy-eyed--and to be sure, Anthony Lewis was a liberal's liberal--he was hardly naive. He understood the dynamics of power, in particular the role the media could play in keeping government on task and accountable--even the courts. For Lewis, the court reporter played a constitutional role as a check on judicial power as well as an advocate for the public, and he embodied these roles with missionary zeal. Whether it was through his daily news coverage or his personal relationships with the justices and other political figures and institutions in official Washington, Lewis kept his foot on the gas in his pursuit of equality and the preservation of human rights and dignity.

Lewis was also blessed with good timing. His arrival at the Court roughly coincided with the rise of the Warren Court and its momentous expansion of civil liberties. (10) President Dwight Eisenhower appointed former California Governor Earl Warren Chief Justice in 1953, and Lewis became The Times' first U.S. Supreme Court reporter just four years later, in 1957. (11)

The two were made for each other. Warren had already set the course for his court with his historic unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, holding that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. (12) The nation was poised for epochal change in race and gender equality, music, mores, and more, all set against the backdrop of a divisive war in Vietnam. Such are the tensions that provide great cases at the nation's highest court, and with a new liberal majority of justices, the Court was ready to take them on.

Lewis was ready, too. He had learned the ways of Washington as a reporter for the Washington Daily News, where he earned a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles about Abraham Chasanow, a civilian U.S. Navy worker who was fired after anonymous informers linked him with anti-American activities. (13) Lewis had also spent the previous year at Harvard Law School as a Nieman Fellow, taking courses in constitutional law, civil procedure and the federal system and even had an article published in the Harvard Law Review on the relatively obscure topic of state legislative redistricting--unusual for a non-student at the fabled Cambridge campus. (14)

With years of experience navigating the corridors of powers in Washington, the gravitas of a Pulitzer Prize, and a Court ready to consider the cases brought on by major social change, Lewis had everything he needed to create and define the role of U.S. Supreme Court reporter.

Year after year, until Warren retired in 1969, the Court issued rulings that established a constitutional right to vote (15) and the principle of "one person, one vote," (16) the rights of criminal defendants to remain silent during interrogation (17) and the right to an attorney if he couldn't afford one, (18) the responsibility of law enforcement to respect defendants' rights, (19) and a constitutional right to privacy, (20) among many others.

Anthony Lewis was the Court's chronicler, heralding each decision with the accuracy of a lawyer, the insight of a social scientist, and the ease of a novelist. He showed what a newspaper reporter could do with the Court's daily grind of orders, arguments, and decisions, with weekday coverage of breaking news, and analytic pieces in the Sunday Times. (21) With remarkable speed, Lewis earned a second Pulitzer Prize in 1963 (22) and sealed his reputation as one of the nation's leading journalists.

Beyond the Court

While Lewis laid the blueprint for modern legal coverage with every byline, he went beyond daily coverage and used a four-month newspaper strike in the winter of 1962 to write what would become the classic work of the genre, Gideon's Trumpet, (23) which told the struggle of a poor drifter's fight to get a lawyer to represent him on felony criminal charges in Florida. The facts and narrative were as compelling as any bestseller. But Lewis also used the case to help the public understand how courts work--including a then-unprecedented look at the inner workings of the nation's highest court--as well as how the law itself...