Lavish Gifts, Judicial Ethics, and the U.S. Supreme Court

Presented by the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy, Institute of Politics, Department of English, and Pitt Law

The 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Reporting, considered the highest honor in journalism, was awarded to ProPublica for “groundbreaking and ambitious reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court to reveal how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel, pushing the Court to adopt its first code of conduct.”

Brett Murphy, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, was a key member of the ProPublica team whose exceptional work was recognized.  He returns to discuss this work and the important role played by journalism in the preservation and effective functioning of our democracy.  He will be joined in that discussion by Katelyn Polantz, also a Pitt graduate and now Senior Crime and Justice Reporter at CNN, and Mark Nordenberg, Chancellor Emeritus and Director of the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy.

Brett Murphy studied non-fiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh and wrote for the Pitt News. He was awarded his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in 2013 and subsequently earned a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.  He joined ProPublica in 2022 and is a reporter on its national desk.  He earlier worked as an investigative reporter for USA Today, where his reporting on the financial exploitation of port truckers was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting.  Over the years, his work has earned numerous other honors, including the Polk Award, the Selden Ring and the Livingston Award. At an earlier time in his life, he was a child actor with roles in the feature film Fever Pitch and ABC sit-com Hope and Faith, and with an appearance on Saturday Night Live and in numerous commercials.

Katelyn Polantz is CNN’s Senior Reporter on Crime and Justice. She was
awarded her bachelor’s degree by the University of Pittsburgh in 2009.
She served as Editor-in-Chief of the Pitt News and studied English
literature, communication and rhetoric. After graduating, she held posts at the Roanoke Times, PBS NewsHour, the National Law Journal and American Lawyer Magazine. Katelyn joined CNN in 2017 to cover the  Mueller investigation and related court proceedings. Since then, she has focused her work around trial court proceedings, separation of powers disputes, Justice Department investigations and, most recently, the criminal cases against Donald Trump. She won an Emmy Award in 2020 for exclusive reporting on the arrest of political adviser Roger Stone.  
 

Mark Nordenberg is Chair of Pitt’s Institute of Politics and Director of its Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy.  He also is Chancellor Emeritus of the University, Dean Emeritus of its School of Law, and Distinguished Service Professor of Law. Among his recent civic activities, he was co-founder of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, and he chaired the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission at the request of state Supreme Court.

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom.  Its mission is “to expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.”

Except for those seeking continuing legal education credit, there is no charge for this program, which also will be live-streamed, but registration is required.

Co-Sponsored by:

Pitt Cyber; The David Frederick Honors College; The Pitt News

The Dick Thornburgh Forum is grateful to the Richard King Mellon Foundation for its generous support of the Forum’s governance programs.