Liptak, Adam
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Adam Liptak (born September 2, 1960) is an American journalist, lawyer and instructor in law and journalism. He is the Supreme Court correspondent for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Liptak has written for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'', ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', ''
The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'', ''
Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'' and other publications. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 2009 for a series of articles that examined ways in which the American legal system differs from those of other developed nations.


Early life and education

Liptak was born in
Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 202 ...
. He first joined ''The New York Times'' as a copyboy in 1984 after graduating ''cum laude'' from
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
, where he was an editor of the ''
Yale Daily News The ''Yale Daily News'' is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878. It is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States. The ''Yale Daily News'' has consis ...
'', with a degree in English. In addition to clerical work and fetching coffee, he assisted the reporter
M. A. Farber Myron A. Farber (born c. 1938) is an American newspaper reporter for ''The New York Times'', whose investigations into the deaths of several patients at an Oradell, New Jersey, hospital led to the murder trial of Dr. Mario Jascalevich, a physician ...
in covering the trial of a libel suit brought by General William Westmoreland against CBS. He returned to Yale for a J.D. degree, graduating from
Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & World ...
in 1988. During law school, Liptak worked as a summer clerk in
The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City. History The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. ...
's legal department. After graduating, he spent four years at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, a New York City law firm, as a litigation associate specializing in
First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
matters. In 1992, he returned to The New York Times Company's legal department. Liptak spent a decade advising ''The New York Times'' and the company's other newspapers, television stations and new media properties on defamation, privacy, news gathering and related issues and frequently litigated media and commercial cases.


Career

Liptak joined ''The New York Times'' news staff in 2002 as its national legal correspondent. He covered the Supreme Court nominations of
John Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases, including '' Nat ...
and
Samuel Alito Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. ( ; born April 1, 1950) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and has serve ...
; the investigation into the disclosure of the identity of
Valerie Plame Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy novelist, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As the subject of the 2003 Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer ...
, an undercover
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
operative; the trial of
John Lee Malvo Lee Boyd Malvo (born February 18, 1985), also known as John Lee Malvo, is a convicted murderer who, along with John Allen Muhammad, committed a series of murders dubbed the D.C. sniper attacks over a three-week period in October 2002. Malvo was a ...
, one of the Washington-area snipers; judicial ethics; and various aspects of the criminal justice system,Kevin Baker
"Cruel and Usual: Why Prisoners Shouldn't Pay Their Way," ''
American Heritage American Heritage may refer to: * ''American Heritage'' (magazine) * '' The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' * American Heritage Rivers * American Heritage School (disambiguation) See also * National Register of Historic Pla ...
'', June/July 2006.
including capital punishment. He inaugurated the ''Sidebar'' column in January 2007. The column covers and considers developments in the law. In 2005, he examined the rise in life sentences in the U.S. in a three-part series. The next year, Liptak and two colleagues studied connections between contributions to the campaigns of justices on the
Ohio Supreme Court The Ohio Supreme Court, Officially known as The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a ...
and those justices' voting records. He was a member of the teams that examined the reporting of
Jayson Blair Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is an American former journalist who worked for ''The New York Times''. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of fabrication and plagiarism in his stories. Blair publi ...
and Judith Miller at ''The New York Times'', in 2003 and 2005, respectively. He began covering the Supreme Court in 2008. He followed Linda Greenhouse, who had covered the Supreme Court for nearly 30 years. Liptak has served as the chairman of the
New York City Bar Association The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...
ā€™s communications and media law committee and was a member of the board of the Media Law Resource Center. He has taught courses on media law and the Supreme Court at
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism ...
,
UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...
,
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...
, University of Southern California's Gould School of Law, and Yale Law School. Liptak's work has appeared in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'', ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', ''
The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'', ''
Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'', and ''
The American Lawyer ''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill. Liptak was also featured in ''
The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
s 2014 commencement issue with his column entitled "Please Calculate Badly." In 2013, he published an e-book, ''To Have and Uphold: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage''.


Awards

In 1995, ''Presstime'' magazine named him one of 20 leading newspaper professionals under the age of 40. In 1999, he received the
New York Press Club The New York Press Club, sometimes ''NYPC'', is a private nonprofit membership organization which promotes journalism in the New York City metropolitan area. It is unaffiliated with any government organization and abstains from politics. While the c ...
's John Peter Zenger award for "defending and advancing the cause of a free press". In 2006, the same group awarded him its Crystal Gavel award for his journalistic work. He was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting has been presented since 1998, for a distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear pr ...
in 2009, and he won the 2010 Scripps Howard Award for Washington Reporting for a five-part series on the Roberts Court.
Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the Iā€“4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...
awarded Liptak an honorary doctor of laws degree in 2014, and
Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College ā€“ Hofstra Memorial of New ...
presented him with its Presidential Medal in 2008. He is a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
.


Personal life

Liptak lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Jennifer Bitman, a veterinarian, and their children, Katie and Ivan.


References


External links


Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism - faculty biographies



Adam Liptak's ''New York Observer'' review archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liptak, Adam 1960 births Columbia University faculty Connecticut lawyers Living people New York (state) lawyers The New York Observer people The New York Times writers The New Yorker people American newspaper editors Writers from Stamford, Connecticut UCLA School of Law faculty Vanity Fair (magazine) people Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Journalists from Washington, D.C. Yale Law School alumni Yale Law School faculty People associated with Cahill Gordon & Reindel