Students of American politics who study the Supreme Court often take as the starting point for their analyses the notion that the Court is a unique and fundamentally “different” kind of institution in our tripartite governmental system, featuring a merging of law and politics that distinguishes it from the American legislative and executive branches as well as from most other national judiciaries. Similarly, many journalists who cover the institution attest to the unique nature of the Supreme Court beat when contrasting it with reporting on the other branches of government. Indeed, ABC News legal correspondent Tim O'Brien suggested that the Court is not, in the final analysis, a “Washington” beat at all: “I don't even think of covering the Supreme Court really as a Washington assignment.… [O]ften, unlike any other beat in town, I will not have any shot in my piece from Washington.… [I]t's a national beat, but not a Washington beat.”

In the following two chapters we will examine the environment in which Supreme Court journalists operate and the world that they inhabit. First, in chapter 2, we will explore the distinctive nature of the Court beat, with particular attention paid to the numerous manifestations of that distinctiveness.