Lyle Denniston

Lyle Denniston, widely known as the Dean of Supreme Court Journalists, has built an extraordinary career spanning over seven decades of legal reporting, beginning at the Otoe County Courthouse in Nebraska City in 1948. A graduate of the University of Nebraska and Georgetown University with a master's in American history and political science, Denniston covered the Supreme Court for 58 years, reporting on one-quarter of all Justices who ever served on the nation's highest court. His distinguished career included reporting positions at prestigious publications including The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, American Lawyer, Washington Star, and SCOTUSblog, where his work contributed to the site winning the 2013 Peabody Award. He has authored the definitive book on Supreme Court journalism, "The Reporter and the Law: Techniques of Covering the Courts," and received numerous accolades, including induction into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Professional Journalists. Even at 91, Denniston maintained his passion for legal journalism through his blog, Lyle Denniston Law News, while serving as a visiting professor at the University of Baltimore Law School. His legacy includes an archive of 258 boxes of career materials donated to the University of Nebraska, serving both the law school and journalism school.