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Portrait of Adam Liptak

Adam Liptak

I try to make the Supreme Court accessible to readers. Part of the job is to distill and translate complex legal materials into something like accessible prose, often on a very tight deadline. Another is to present fairly the arguments of both sides while remaining alert to the political context and practical consequences of the court’s work. A third is to draw on all of the tools of journalism to cover the court vigorously as a powerful government institution. And a fourth is to give readers multiple points of access, examining the activities of the justices, lawyers and litigants by drawing on, among other things, legal scholarship and data-driven social-science research.

I started at The Times as a copy boy after graduating from Yale, where I had worked on the school paper. I returned to Yale for a law degree and then practiced law for 14 years, concentrating on First Amendment issues, first at a Wall Street firm and then in The New York Times Company’s corporate legal department. I joined the paper’s news staff in 2002 and started covering the Supreme Court in 2008. I was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. I am a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and have taught courses on the Supreme Court and the First Amendment at several law schools, including at the University of Chicago, New York University and Yale.

All Times journalists are committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. I work hard to be accurate and to treat the people I write about fairly, keeping in mind that The Times possesses a powerful voice that must be tempered by humility and a sense of proportion. I don’t participate in political causes, and I don’t make political donations. I still have my bar license, but I don’t practice law or give legal advice.

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