{{short description|Law blog about the U.S. Supreme Court}} {{Italic title}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2025}} {{Infobox website | name = ''SCOTUSblog'' | logo = SCOTUSblog logo.png | logocaption = | screenshot = | collapsible = | collapsetext = | caption = | url = {{URL|https://www.scotusblog.com|scotusblog.com}} | commercial = | type = Law blog following the Supreme Court of the United States | registration = | language = English | num_users = | content_license = Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States{{efn|The April 23, 2025, announcement <ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/the-future-of-scotusblog/?_ptid=%7Bkpdx%7DAAAAr6KJmO7woAoKbGtjVUlwd3NwdRIQbWE5dzlmaXo4a3NmOTJ4YRoMRVhDOFhXVFkxNUVGIiUxODA1Y2IwMGJrLTAwMDAzNWtzN2F2cWI4NzYydG9ydWVhb3MwKhlzaG93VGVtcGxhdGVIQUhFUkFVM0sxMzA2MAE6DE9UUFpZSUVLOU0wNVISdi1tYTl2djVzNGE3bWZuN2l5Wgw3NC43Ny4xOTAuMzBiA2R3Y2ja2-PABnACeAQ |title=The Future of SCOTUSblog|date= April 23, 2025 |publisher= SCOTUSblog}}</ref> of the acquisition of ''SCOTUSblog'' by ''The Dispatch'' states "Historically, SCOTUSblog content was published under a Creative Commons license allowing non-commercial use. That license remains in effect for past content, and those uses will continue to be honored. Going forward, however, all SCOTUSblog content falls under The Dispatch's copyright. Any future use will require permission from The Dispatch. If you’re interested in licensing our content for research, educational, or commercial use, we’re open to those conversations. Please reach out to scotusblog at thedispatch.com."}} | owner = ''The Dispatch'' | author = Tom Goldstein and Amy Howe | editor = | launch_date = {{Start date and age|2002|10|1}} | alexa = | revenue = | current_status = | footnotes = }}
'''''SCOTUSblog''''' is a law blog written by lawyers, legal scholars, and law students about the Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes abbreviated "SCOTUS"). Formerly sponsored by Bloomberg Law and now owned by ''The Dispatch'', the site tracks cases before the Court from the certiorari stage through the merits stage.
The site live blogs as the Court announces opinions and grants cases, and has published information on the Court's actions before the Court and other news outlets. ''SCOTUSblog'' frequently hosts symposiums with leading experts on the cases before the Court. The blog comprehensively covers all of the cases argued before the Court and maintains an archive of the briefing and other documents in each case.
==History and growth== The blog's first post was published on October 1, 2002.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.goldsteinhowe.com/blog/index.cfm |title=SCOTUSblog |date= October 1, 2002 |publisher= Goldstein & Howe |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20021010030529/http://www.goldsteinhowe.com/blog/index.cfm |archive-date= October 10, 2002}}</ref> Founded by Supreme Court litigator Tom Goldstein and former litigator Amy Howe, the blog began as a means of promoting their law firm then known as Goldstein & Howe, P.C.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/tom-goldstein-scotusblog-2013-4/ |title=New Journalism |date= April 7, 2013 |publisher= New York magazine }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=McCarthy |first=Tom |date=May 22, 2014 |title=Scotusblog loss of Senate press credentials fuels media uproar |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/may/22/scotusblog-loses-senate-press-credential |access-date=July 1, 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The blog moved to its current address on February 7, 2005.<ref>{{cite news |first= Tom |last= Goldstein |author-link= Tom Goldstein |url= http://www.scotusblog.com/2005/02/welcome-to-the-new-scotusblog/ |title= Welcome to the New SCOTUSblog |date= February 7, 2005 |work= SCOTUSblog}}</ref> In the same year, it was featured by ''BusinessWeek'' in their weekly blog recommendation.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2005/10/new_businesswee.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060826014737/http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2005/10/new_businesswee.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= August 26, 2006 |title= New BusinessWeek Feature Focuses on SCOTUSblog |work= BusinessWeek|access-date=December 23, 2008}}</ref> A companion wiki was added in 2007, but its features were subsequently integrated into the blog itself.<ref>{{cite news |first= Marie |last= Price |date= October 5, 2007 |url= http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-33067411_ITM |title= U.S. Supreme Court trackers get wiki |work= The Journal Record |location= Oklahoma City, OK}}</ref>
In June 2007 the site announced that it was about to experience its single largest daily readership at 100,000 page views per day.<ref>{{cite news |first= Tom |last= Goldstein |date= June 28, 2007 |url= http://www.scotusblog.com/2007/06/100000/ |title= 100,000 |work= SCOTUSblog}}</ref> The increase in traffic coincided with the Supreme Court's reversal of course on June 29, 2007, when it unexpectedly announced it would hear the Guantanamo Bay detainees' challenges to the Military Commissions Act of 2006. A 2008 article in the ''New York Law School Law Review'' estimated that "before the end of the afternoon, ''SCOTUSblog'' alone had posted more information about the case than most newspapers provided even the next day."<ref name=NYLS>{{cite journal |last= Goldstein |first= Brandt |url= http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/17/49/NLRvol52-306.pdf |title= Lost in Translation? Some Brief Notes on Writing About Law for the Layperson |journal= New York Law School Law Review |volume= 52 |issue= 3 |year= 2007–2008 |pages= 373–384 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100619205206/http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/17/49/NLRvol52-306.pdf |archive-date= June 19, 2010}}</ref> After Lyle Denniston stepped down as the blog's reporter at the Court in 2016, Amy Howe was named the blog's reporter.<ref>{{cite news |last=Goldstein |first=Tom |date=June 28, 2016 |title=On the great Lyle Denniston's departure from SCOTUSblog |url=http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/06/on-the-great-lyle-dennistons-departure-from-scotusblog/ |newspaper=SCOTUSblog |access-date=December 11, 2016 }}</ref>
Bloomberg Law began sponsoring ''SCOTUSblog'' in 2011, allowing it to fully separate from Goldstein & Howe, P.C.<ref name=":0" /> ''The Dispatch'' acquired ''SCOTUSblog'' in April 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hayes |first=Steve |date=April 23, 2025 |title=The Dispatch Acquires SCOTUSblog |url=https://thedispatch.com/article/dispatch-acquires-scotusblog/ |access-date=April 23, 2025 |website=The Dispatch |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mullin |first=Benjamin |date=April 23, 2025 |title=The Dispatch Buys SCOTUSblog, a Supreme Court Mainstay |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/business/media/scotusblog-the-dispatch.html |access-date=April 24, 2025 |website=The New York Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Reception==
=== Praise === A 2008 article in the ''New York Law School Law Review'' gave ''SCOTUSblog'' as an example of a successful law blog, together with Balkinization and the Volokh Conspiracy, and noted that "with growing numbers of lawyers and legal scholars commenting on breaking legal issues, the blogosphere provides more sophisticated, in-depth analysis of the law than is possible even in a long-form magazine article."<ref name=NYLS/> Edward Adams, editor and publisher of the American Bar Association's ''ABA Journal'', said that ''SCOTUSblog'' is one of the best law blogs. "It's run by lawyers and they cover the Supreme Court more intensively than any news organization does, and it does a better job, too."<ref>{{cite news |first= Al |last= Gibes |title= Justice May Be Blind, but It Isn't Mute |work= Las Vegas Review-Journal |date=November 22, 2008}}</ref>
The site is also known for its comprehensive coverage of the nomination and confirmation process for new justices. In 2009 Paul Krugman of ''The New York Times'' wrote of the site's coverage of the Sonia Sotomayor nomination, "Without SCOTUS[blog], the whole debate might have been about wise Latina women and [[Newt Gingrich|Newt <nowiki>[Gingrich]</nowiki>]]'s Tweets from Auschwitz. Instead, we have some real information getting into the picture."<ref>{{cite news |url= https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/scotusblog-roolz/ |work= The New York Times |first= Paul |last= Krugman |title= SCOTUSblog Roolz! |date= May 31, 2009}}</ref>
During the week of the Affordable Care Act hearings at the Supreme Court in March 2012, the site had one million hits owing to its extensive coverage of the arguments in both legalese and "In Plain English". ''Technorati'' rated the site as one of the 100 most influential blogs. The site is consistently on ''Technorati''{{'s}} list of top politics blogs.
=== Criticism === ''SCOTUSblog'' has received some criticism for potential conflicts of interest concerning Goldstein, his litigation practice, and the blog's coverage of court matters. In 2010, journalist Glenn Greenwald in ''Salon'' wrote that the blog's favorable coverage of justices, particularly their confirmation processes, and ongoing cases was a way for Goldstein to curry favor with them for when he would argue before the court.<ref name=":0" /> Regarding the confirmation of Justice Elena Kagan, Greenwald described Goldstein as "heaping obsequious praise on every nominee to the Court, while attacking and mocking all of the nominee's critics as ideological extremists, so that when the nominee arrives on the Court and Goldstein appears before them, the new Justice is looking at his or her leading public champion".<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 11, 2010 |title=Tom Goldstein and the perils of conflict-plagued commentary |url=https://www.salon.com/2010/09/11/goldstein_2/ |access-date=July 1, 2023 |website=Salon |language=en}}</ref> After Bloomberg began sponsoring the blog, Goldstein stated that {{nowrap|1="[''SCOTUSblog'']}} adopted a series of firewalls, to make sure that the firm and the blog were separate actually and optically" ensuring that no member of Goldstein & Howe could "write about any case in which the firm is involved".<ref name=":0" />
==Awards== In 2010, ''SCOTUSblog'' was the recipient of the ABA's Silver Gavel award.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Cassens Weiss|first=Debra|date=April 28, 2010|title=SCOTUSblog Among ABA Silver Gavel Award Winners|url=https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/scotusblog_among_aba_silver_gavel_award_winners|access-date=July 4, 2020|website=ABA Journal}}</ref> It is the only blog to receive the award. In 2013, ''SCOTUSblog'' received the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media. It is the first blog to ever receive the Peabody.<ref>[http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/scotusblog 72nd Annual Peabody Awards], May 2013.</ref> It also won the 2012 Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi) prize for deadline reporting by an independent source for its coverage of the announcement of the Supreme Court's Affordable Care Act decision.<ref>{{cite web|title=2012 Sigma Delta Chi Award Honorees|url=https://www.spj.org/sdxa12.asp|publisher=Society of Professional Journalists|access-date=April 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170530141137/https://www.spj.org/sdxa12.asp|archive-date=May 30, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{official website|http://www.SCOTUSblog.com}}
Category:American political blogs Category:Supreme Court of the United States Category:American legal websites Category:Internet properties established in 2002 Category:2002 establishments in the United States Category:Peabody Award–winning websites