JOURNALISTS, JUSTICES, OBAMA JUDGES, AND TRUMP JUDGES.

• Author: Mauro, Tony

When I was asked to opine about ways in which judges, lawyers, and law professors could soothe the angry divisions in the law and society, I thought I had an easy way to say no. I am not a judge, a lawyer, or a law professor. Simple as that.

But as a journalist who has covered the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate courts for more than forty years, I felt obliged to say yes. Journalists who cover the courts are more than innocent bystanders. As fair and neutral as we may be when we write stories that begin with "The Supreme Court today ruled...," we play a role that can fan the flames of division in the legal realm, especially if we get things wrong or we exaggerate the divisions that inevitably occur in an adversarial system when one party wins and the other party loses.

So, I am approaching this topic in two ways. First, by exploring how appellate judges, professors, and practitioners can help the media do better, and second, explaining why we cannot always please them.

1. TALK TO US

   By coincidence, I wrote about the first element in the Fall 2007 edition of The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, in an article titled "Five Ways Appellate Courts Can Help the News Media." (1) My first sentence was "The title of this article probably has some readers fuming--especially those of you who wear robes to work." (2)

   That may be true today as well. Judges have a long history of ignoring and disdaining journalists, and some still find it odious or unethical to even speak to reporters, much less help them. In a long-ago conversation at a social gathering at the Supreme Court, Chief Justice William Rehnquist once told me and other journalists, "The difference between us and the other branches of government is that we don't need you people of the press." (3)

   But that was a long time ago, and the relationship between journalists and jurists has changed.

   One factor has been the growth of social media, which has loosened the lips of people of all stripes, including judges and legal professionals who would never have spoken so bluntly and tersely before.

   State court judges tweet routinely, and it is likely that some Supreme Court Justices have social media accounts, if for no other reason than to keep up with family members. Until he ascended to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2018, Judge Don Willett was a prolific Twitter user while serving as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, earning him the moniker of "Tweeter Laureate of...