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Making Judge-Speak Clear Amidst The Babel Of Lawspeakers, Michael A. Wolff
Making Judge-Speak Clear Amidst The Babel Of Lawspeakers, Michael A. Wolff
Missouri Law Review
As law became more of a publicly traded commodity in the 1990s, courts, including the Supreme Court of Missouri, began to hire public information officers. It may strike you as odd, when you think about it, as to why a court that communicates with words would need someone assigned to explain to the wordsmiths of the media – and sometimes to the public itself – what judges meant by the collections of words in their judicial opinions. But today, we take it for granted that public information officers are essential to the operation of a state supreme court, and although …
Institutionalizing Press Relations At The Supreme Court: The Origins Of The Public Information Office, Jonathan Peters
Institutionalizing Press Relations At The Supreme Court: The Origins Of The Public Information Office, Jonathan Peters
Missouri Law Review
At the U.S. Supreme Court, the press is the primary link between the justices and the public, and the Public Information Office (“PIO”) is the primary link between the justices and the press. This Article explores the story of the PIO’s origins, providing the most complete account to date of its early history. That story is anchored by the major events of several eras – from the Great Depression policymaking of the 1930s to the social and political upheaval of the 1970s. It is also defined by the three men who built and shaped the office in the course of …