Nina Totenberg
Nina Totenberg is NPR's award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR's critically acclaimed newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition.
Totenberg's coverage of the Supreme Court and legal affairs has won her widespread recognition. She is often featured in documentaries — most recently RBG — that deal with issues before the court. As Newsweek put it, "The mainstays [of NPR] are Morning Edition and All Things Considered. But the creme de la creme is Nina Totenberg."
In 1991, her ground-breaking report about University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita Hill's allegations of sexual harassment by Judge Clarence Thomas led the Senate Judiciary Committee to re-open Thomas's Supreme Court confirmation hearings to consider Hill's charges. NPR received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for its gavel-to-gavel coverage — anchored by Totenberg — of both the original hearings and the inquiry into Anita Hill's allegations, and for Totenberg's reports and exclusive interview with Hill.
That same coverage earned Totenberg additional awards, including the Long Island University George Polk Award for excellence in journalism; the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for investigative reporting; the Carr Van Anda Award from the Scripps School of Journalism; and the prestigious Joan S. Barone Award for excellence in Washington-based national affairs/public policy reporting, which also acknowledged her coverage of Justice Thurgood Marshall's retirement.
Totenberg was named Broadcaster of the Year and honored with the 1998 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcasting from the National Press Foundation. She is the first radio journalist to receive the award. She is also the recipient of the American Judicature Society's first-ever award honoring a career body of work in the field of journalism and the law. In 1988, Totenberg won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for her coverage of Supreme Court nominations. The jurors of the award stated, "Ms. Totenberg broke the story of Judge (Douglas) Ginsburg's use of marijuana, raising issues of changing social values and credibility with careful perspective under deadline pressure."
Totenberg has been honored seven times by the American Bar Association for continued excellence in legal reporting and has received more than two dozen honorary degrees. On a lighter note, Esquiremagazine twice named her one of the "Women We Love."
A frequent contributor on TV shows, she has also written for major newspapers and periodicals — among them, The New York Times Magazine, The Harvard Law Review, The Christian Science Monitor, and New York Magazine, and others.
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From abortion to religion and immigration, the recent court term featured just about every flashpoint in American law. Here are the highlights, including the influence of Chief Justice John Roberts. -
In two 7-2 rulings written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court allowed a subpoena in a New York criminal case but told a lower court to consider separation of powers when it comes to Congress.
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The opinion upheld a Trump administration rule that significantly cut back on the Affordable Care Act requirement that insurers provide free birth control coverage under almost all health care plans.
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The 7-2 decision carving out a religious exemption could potentially affect other employees of religious hospitals, universities and charities.
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The decision could directly affect the election, which will take place in November amid a pandemic and a partial economic collapse.
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The decisions ensure none of these cases will be decided before the November election.
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The 5-4 decision, in which Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's other conservatives, is a win for parents who wanted to use the state tax credit to help send children to religious schools.
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But the court left intact the rest of the statute that created the CFPB. The decision was a victory for President Trump and others who have long sought to trim the sails of independent agencies.
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Chief Justice John Roberts joins the court's four liberals, citing the adherence to precedent, to invalidate a law that required abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges.
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The decision is a dramatic victory for immigration advocates and gives a new lease on life for the so-called DREAMers, immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
