SCOTUS blog – How SCOTUSblog Live Blogs Supreme Court Opinions

As we enter the heart of opinion season, we thought it would be helpful to revisit past Closer Looks on how SCOTUSblog covers opinion announcements. This piece was originally published on Feb. 4.

One question we often get at SCOTUSblog is how in the world we live blog the announcement of Supreme Court opinions when electronic devices are prohibited in the courtroom.

Before answering that, let’s back up a bit. On days when the court announces opinions, the action is divided between two different venues. The main event is in the courtroom, where justices enter to the traditional “Oyez!” cry from the court’s marshal, Gail Curley. Once the justices are seated, Chief Justice John Roberts indicates that “Justice [X] has our opinion in [No.-XX, case name].” That justice then reads a summary of the decision, which can range in length from quite short (especially if Justice Samuel Alito is doing the reading – for example, as in 2024’s Brown v. United States) to fairly long, as often happens in high-profile cases such as Trump v. United States, in which Roberts’ summary of the majority opinion took nearly 14 minutes.

If there are concurring or dissenting opinions, a justice may also opt to read from his or her separate opinion. That said, this is relatively rare and typically a sign that the reading justice sees the case as extremely important or believes the majority has gone terribly astray. For example, in her 2024 dissent from the majority opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron doctrine, Justice Elena Kagan said the majority put courts at the “apex of the administrative process” and that overruling Chevron threatens “a massive shock to the system.”

If there is more than one opinion, the court typically announces its opinions in order of reverse seniority, with the chief justice, who is always the most senior justice, going last. Once the first opinion announcement is complete, Roberts indicates who has the next opinion. He repeats this process until all of the day’s opinions have been released. At that point, the court moves on to any further proceedings for the day (like admitting new lawyers to the Supreme Court bar or scheduled oral arguments) before the marshal gavels the session to a close.

Now back to our original question. While all of this is occurring, some reporters choose to sit in the courtroom for the opinion announcements. Because, as noted, electronic devices are prohibited in the courtroom, they can only bring in a blank pad of paper and pens and must frantically scribble down anything they hear.

But other reporters – including Amy – gather on the first floor of the court building, in the court’s press room, immediately adjacent to the court’s Public Information Office. Shortly before 10 a.m. EDT, the reporters gather in the Public Information Office, where the opinions are waiting in boxes to be distributed. (The boxes give us a rough idea of how many opinions we can expect for the day.)

As the opinion announcements begin, audio from the courtroom is projected into the PIO. Once the chief justice indicates that a particular justice has the opinion in a particular case, the staff in the PIO begin to distribute the opinions to the waiting reporters from two desks. Once Amy has her paper copy of the opinion, she returns to her desk in the next room, where she determines how the court has ruled and types the result into the platform that we use for our live blog. While this is occurring, Amy also can hear (although not very clearly) the audio of the opinion announcement in the next room. When it sounds like the author is almost finished reading his or her summary of the opinion, Amy then returns to the PIO to wait for the next opinion – assuming there is one. And on it goes, until opinion announcements for the day come to a close.