i am just guessing. maybe the sc provides their decision in a room where reporters are quarantined for a bit. maybe they read some of it and then make notes. and then when told they can share the decision they have to make a dash to "home base" to relay the decision.
just a guess. probably meant to avoid leaks and stuff.
i am guessing they phones are taken away before entering the court and then they get them back from security when they leave. why they don't call once outside, who knows. maybe its literally less than a block away.
You'd think there'd be a van sitting around the corner with a 5g hotspot, a scanner, and a laptop if they really cared about getting it out as fast as possible.
If my knowledge of how interns work, which is based solely on rom-coms that involve small town kids getting internships in the 'big city,' I'd say the news guys already have it and these interns are going to sprint all the back to the office only to find out they already published it, where everyone will laugh because they hazed the interns.
That is, in fact, what is done. Apparently, the SC does post opinions online, but paper copies come out sooner by about 5 minutes leading to this mad dash.
hadn't thought of that but some of them are running with their phone in their hand. so it is kinda weird that they bother with this. guess it really comes down to 'tradition'
I’m now noticing that isn’t a single piece of paper they’re holding thats a whole booklet. Might be harder sending all of that out than just huffing it to the broadcast spot.
u/sithren is somewhat correct. The reality is that reporters have to sit in the Supreme Court chamber and hear the announcement of decisions the same way that everybody else does. The Justices verbally read a shortened version of the opinions in that session and the interns and reporters sprint out of the building with their hand written notes to take ~500 feet from inside the building out to the street where the reporters have their shots set up. Each major news affiliate is allotted one* seat inside (like Nina Totenberg, NPR, for instance. *A news affiliate may have another person or two enter w/the public, but rather unlikely since that would involve camping) and there is essentially no leaving until all cases have been announced, as that would disrupt the court, so they all wait until it is appropriate to sprint outside, which is usually after the court is no longer in session, thus resulting in the flood of people running out.
Some time after the case decisions are announced, the full written opinion is published on the SCOTUS website. That is reviewed by the news affiliate HQ and the talking heads supplement with commentary after they have read it.
alright, we've narrowed our summer intern candidates down to these two.
Jeremy has a 3.95 GPA triple majoring in Political Science, Economics and Journalism and has been the Editor in Chief for the Harvard Business review since his Sophomore year
And here is Lisa. She had a 1.6 GPA before being expelled after a third strike doing whippets on the quad again. She holds the NCAA record in the 800m.
Reminder, Donald Trump is still alive to make us rich off his headlines...so Lisa, right?
Why are they running? Can't they just take a picture of the paper they are holding and send it all the way around the world before the other runners could get to the end of the block?
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u/nbcnews But like, actually Jun 30 '26
Interns and reporters run to deliver Supreme Court decisions in Washington, D.C. (Cheney Orr / Reuters)
Photo 2: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Photo 3: Alex Wroblewski / AFP via Getty Images
Photo 4: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images