Covering Federal Courts

The Federal Courts Beat Offers News Pegs for Every Issue. The Supremes get the most attention, but the federal courts offer a chance to break news, avoid spin, build sources – plus much more.
by Chris Adams, National Press Foundation

The federal court system offers journalists a preview of issues that will soon face the country. Too often, reporters in Washington focus on Congress and the White House — and neglect the third branch of government, said Katelyn Polantz, a crime and justice reporter for CNN. The Supreme Court hears only a tiny fraction of the cases that come to it — and an even smaller fraction of the cases wending through the federal court system. There are 94 U.S. district courts, 13 courts of appeals and specialized courts for bankruptcy, veterans’ claims, taxes and trade. “You can find things in court filings that can always speak to something that’s going on more broadly,” she added.

Skip the spin — read the documents. People say things in court they won’t say publicly, and they do so under penalty of perjury. That makes it much harder for plaintiffs and defendants, their lawyers and their public relations advisors to spin reporters their curated narrative about a case. “It’s really easy for an organization to put out a press release saying we’re taking X administration to court to help people do X, but then you read their lawsuit,” said Zoe Tillman, a senior reporter for BuzzFeed News. “And it turns out they’re actually asking for something very narrow from the court. You never want to be a part of someone’s PR strategy.” One case can contain dozens or hundreds of filings. Start at the initial complaint or indictment for a broad sense of what is being asked of the court. The filings also require tight-lipped prosecutors to tip their hands. “Prosecutors speak through filings,” Polantz said. That was how she learned what was going on inside Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Donald Trump when Mueller’s office wasn’t talking.

Build a Rolodex of lawyers and watch as they move through the Washington system. Polantz previously worked for the National Law Journal, and one of her jobs was to write little notices of lawyers moving from one firm to the next. It was the kind of thing that only a legal trade publication would care about. But for Polantz, it was a way to start building a source list of lawyers in Washington and watch as they moved from clerkships into influential law firms into the administration and back to firms. This deep sourcing helped her cover compelling cases and breaking news. When Merrick Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court, Polantz’s team was able to contact almost every one of his previous law clerks. Most were still in Washington — in private firms, the White House and the Justice Department.

Understand that each federal court has its own rules. While there are general rules that apply to all courts, each also has it own procedures for what it posts online, how it handles audio or video of hearings, and its rules of access. “Every district court is its own little fiefdom with its own rules, its own quirks, its own systems, its own ways of doing things,” said Tillman.

Politics is important — at some levels. It’s become commonplace in court coverage to indicate which president appointed the judge or justice in question. Both Tillman and Polantz said that can be useful — up to a point. At the Supreme Court, it’s extremely relevant, they said. “The decisions they make are more likely to reflect their ideological and political background and the experience that they bring to the bench and their style, their way of looking at a given case,” Tillman said. At the circuit (appeals) court level, it can still be helpful. But at the district court level, it becomes trickier. “In most cases, it does not really matter,” Tillman said. “They have the least freedom in how they decide cases. They have to follow the precedent of their circuit.”

Speakers:
Katelyn Polantz, Reporter, Crime and Justice, CNN
Zoe Tillman, Senior Reporter, BuzzFeed News

This program, part of the Paul Miller Fellowship, was funded by the Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation and other donations to the National Press Foundation. NPF is solely responsible for its content.

NPF website: https://nationalpress.org/
More criminal justice resources: https://nationalpress.org/topics/crim...