The Dispatch Purchases SCOTUSblog – A Supreme Court Mainstay
The White House has lately created a torrent of legal news, issuing executive orders that are being met with near-instant challenges in the judiciary.
That has put a spotlight on SCOTUSblog, a website that has been a go-to destination for news and analysis on all things related to the Supreme Court for decades. (SCOTUS stands for Supreme Court of the United States.). Amy Howe, one half of the husband-and-wife team that founded the blog in 2002, spends hours every June parsing the court’s rulings with Talmudic precision.
But now, SCOTUSblog has some news of its own. The Dispatch is a right-of center political news and commentary startup founded by conservative journalists Jonah Goldberg, Stephen Hayes. The deal is part a strategy that “doubles down on rigorous reporting and analyses in topic areas where our start-up already has meaningful advantages,” Michael Rothman said.
We plan to replicate this method with other topics, including national security and tech, education, and conservation.” he added. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
SCOTUSblog is something of a outlier in the quirky annals of digital media. Despite the fact that blogging has become less popular as social media has become more popular, SCOTUSblog has remained remarkably durable. Its loyal readership of legal enthusiasts has remained steadfast. The nonprofit that owns SCOTUSblog will be dissolved as part the deal. The site’s archive and web address will also be transferred to The Dispatch. Ms. Howe and some of SCOTUSblog’s key employees are signing long-term contracts with their new employer, part of an effort to keep the site’s editorial voice intact.
Sarah Isgur, an editor at The Dispatch who co-hosts a podcast on legal issues called “Advisory Opinions,” said in an interview that the acquisition would drastically raise the company’s profile among legal news watchers at a crucial time for the judiciary.
“SCOTUSblog is Kleenex,” Ms. Isgur said. “It is the brand and the product.”
“As Congress has shrunk,” she added, “the Supreme Court and the courts as a whole have risen in importance in terms of how decisions are getting made at the federal level.”
SCOTUSblog is being sold months after Tom Goldstein, a co-founder and Ms. Howe’s husband, was indicted on charges of tax evasion that the government said were related to his activities as an ultrahigh-stakes poker player. Rothman said that Mr. Goldstein would not be a part of the site when it transitions to The Dispatch. A spokeswoman has stated that Mr. Goldstein is a man of “impeccable character” and will contest the charges.
