A 95th birthday tribute to legendary SCOTUSblog reporter Lyle Denniston

The inimitable Lyle Denniston, who served as the primary reporter for SCOTUSblog from 2004 until 2016, celebrates his 95th birthday today. Lyle began his reporting career in 1948 at the county courthouse in his Nebraska hometown and continues to write for his eponymous blog, which means that he is quickly approaching eight extraordinary decades of legal reporting.

In honor of Lyle’s 95th birthday, we have collected 10 of his best stories for SCOTUSblog – one for each decade of his life. Please join us in wishing a very happy birthday to Lyle, who will always be a treasured friend and colleague!

1. Don’t call it a mandate – it’s a tax (June 28, 2012). Lyle covered the court’s historic decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, in which a bare majority of the court (somewhat surprisingly) upheld the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate as a tax. Lyle acquired a cult following for his coverage of the case, which spawned its own hashtag – #waitingforlyle – as people waited for updates from him on the court’s most important rulings.
2. Opinion analysis: Marriage now open to same-sex couples (June 26, 2015). Speaking of the court’s most important decisions, Lyle reported on the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the court held that same-sex couples have a right to marry. “The five-to-four decision,” Lyle said, “was based firmly on the Constitution, and thus could be undone only by a formal amendment to the basic document, or a change of mind by a future Supreme Court. Neither is predictable.”
3. Sweeping new ruling on war crimes courts (July 14, 2014). Although Lyle’s primary beat for SCOTUSblog was the Supreme Court, he was also, as Anna Christensen wrote in 2010, “one of the most respected and sought-after commentators on the legal issues raised by the war on terror.” In this 2014 story, Lyle reported on a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that threw out two guilty verdicts against a former aide to Osama bin Laden by a military tribunal, as well as the possible repercussions of that ruling.
4. Commentary: Scalia in history – a first draft (Feb. 14, 2016). One day after the 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Lyle wrote that “history will find” Scalia “a deeply puzzling, but profoundly interesting, paradox.”
5. Judge Garland and the Senate: If not now, maybe later? (March 17, 2016). In March 2016, Lyle explored the different scenarios in which the Senate might act on then-President Barack Obama’s (ultimately unsuccessful) nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy created by Scalia’s death.
6. Opinion analysis: A compromise, with real impact, on birth control (May 16, 2016). Lyle unpacked the court’s decision in a dispute arising from the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers provide their employees with insurance that includes access to certain forms of birth control. Lyle suggested that with the ruling, “the Court both achieved the practical results of letting the government go forward to provide the contraceptive benefits and freeing the non-profits of any risk of penalties.”
7. The immigration case made simple (Feb. 5, 2016). Among Lyle’s many gifts is the ability to convey very complicated legal topics in a way that non-lawyers can understand, as he did in this 2016 explainer on the issues in a challenge to an Obama-era immigration policy allowing for certain immigrants to remain in the country.
8. Commentary: Death penalty options narrow (June 25, 2008). Lyle discussed the possible implications of two 2008 rulings on the death penalty for future cases. He pointed to language in one opinion as “clear evidence that the Court, at least as presently constituted, is determined not to ‘extend’ or ‘expand’ the reach of the death penalty,” but he also noted (accurately) that the future of the death penalty “may well depend upon future Presidents’ appointments to the bench.”
9. Analysis: A few open, or not so open, questions (Jan. 21, 2010). Shortly after the court issued its landmark decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Lyle considered some of the issues that the court did (or did not) address in its lengthy opinion. “Given that there is always someone in American politics interested in testing any limit that any part of the government imposed on political expression,” he concluded, “one can easily imagine that Citizens United is not the last word on questions it did not resolve.”
10. Opinion analysis: A brief respite for affirmative action? (June 23, 2016). Lyle covered Fisher v. University of Texas, the court’s opinion upholding the University of Texas’ consideration of race as part of its undergraduate admissions process. He noted that the ruling “sent few dependable signals to the larger academic community about where race stands as a valid factor in admissions programs. The first tests of how lower courts could react to the ruling,” he suggested, “could come in lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina” – in which the Supreme Court in 2023 effectively ended the use of race in college admissions.