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, Esquire magazine 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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The Supreme Court tests how states may determine whether a capital defendant is intellectually disabled and thus cannot be executed.
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Thirty years ago, Jeff Sessions' history of racial comments derailed him from a job as a federal judge. Now, President-elect Trump has nominated the Alabama senator to run the Justice Department. -
Statements from President-elect Donald Trump raise questions about the incoming administration, big issues before the Supreme Court and progress toward nominating a ninth Supreme Court justice.
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Miami claims bank foreclosures in 2008 targeted black and Latino homeowners. When they defaulted, property values fell, which meant a drop in taxes. The city wants the right to sue the banks.
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Janet Reno, First Female U.S. Attorney General, Dies At 78Reno's tenure was marked by tragedy and controversy. But she left office widely respected for her independence and accomplishments. -
Nina Totenberg knows what broke the curse against the Chicago Cubs and she's ready to share it. (It worked for the Red Sox, too.) -
"Suppose this girl wanted to go to a public library ... and the library said, 'You can't take your dog here; we're going to just provide you with a librarian,' " Justice Elena Kagan said. -
The Supreme Court will hear Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools on Monday to decide if disabled children prevented from having qualified service animals at school can go directly to federal court. -
Senate GOP leadership has refused to hold hearings or a vote on the moderate judge's nomination. Yet, with the prospect of a Clinton presidency, might conservatives be having second thoughts? -
Justice Ginsburg Will Make Her Operatic Debut — Sort OfThe Supreme Court justice is set to play a nonsinging role on opening night of the Donizetti opera "The Daughter of the Regiment" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
