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Greenhouse exit interview: good overview, few surprises

By Mark Obbie

I finally had a chance to watch C-SPAN's interview with Linda Greenhouse, which aired Aug. 16 on its "America and the Courts" series. No great surprises for serious watchers of the Supreme Court and its press corps. But it's a wonderful piece of plainspoken, accessible public education about the Court's role, and secondarily about the press' work. A few notable tidbits from the retired Times reporter, who's off to teach at Yale Law School in January: 

• She has no active book project at the moment, but says that she has some "law review-type articles" in the works and a standing invitation to pitch op-eds to the Times.
• She gave only lukewarm support to pleas for camera access in oral arguments -- and not just because the prospects for change are so remote, but also because she sees merit in some of the justices' objections.
• When asked about what frustrated her most about the job, she said it wasn't a lack of access to the justices (which other reporters, and critics of the reporters, often cite). Instead, Greenhouse said it was the Court's practice of backloading its most complicated, newsworthy decisions to the final rush at the end of a term.

Even though she's off the Times' payroll now, Greenhouse offered few personal partisan or ideological opinions. But one that jumped out at me was her statement that the Senate's rejection of Robert Bork was a "fair outcome," despite what she said was her personal affection for the nominee and her belief that some of the harshest personal attacks on Bork "didn't ring true."

Full post as published by Lawbeat on August 23, 2008 (boomark / email).