Tom Goldstein


Thomas Che Goldstein, known as simply Tom Goldstein, is an American lawyer known for his advocacy before and blogging about the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a founding partner of Goldstein and Howe, a Washington, D.C., firm specializing in Supreme Court litigation, and was, until the end of 2010, a partner at Akin Gump, where he was co-head of the litigation and Supreme Court practices. In 2003, he co-founded SCOTUSblog, the most widely read blog covering the Supreme Court, and remains the publisher and occasional contributor, providing analyses and summaries of Supreme Court decisions and cert petitions. He previously taught Supreme Court Litigation at Harvard Law School, and Stanford Law School from 2004-2012.

Education

He graduated from the University of North Carolina was a Bachelor of Arts in 1992 and from the American University Washington College of Law with a Juris Doctor in 1995.

Supreme Court practice

Over the past fifteen years, Goldstein has served as one of the lawyers for one of the parties in just under 10% of the cases argued before the Supreme Court. Goldstein has argued 30 cases himself.
Notably, Goldstein served as second chair for Laurence Tribe and David Boies on behalf of Vice President Al Gore in Bush v. Gore. He also served as second chair for Laurence Tribe on New York Times Co. v. Tasini.
"The Hustler," an April 2006 article by Noam Scheiber in The New Republic, asserted that Goldstein has had an out-sized impact on the Supreme Court, going so far as to suggest the Court was the "Goldstein Court," a phraseology usually reserved for the Chief Justice of the United States during a particular period, but the article offered no empirical data to support that claim.
The article focuses on the practice pioneered by Goldstein of identifying and pursuing cases that are likely to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. At the time, the practice was extremely controversial and analogized to ambulance chasing by established members of the bar, including by now-Chief Justice John Roberts, who quipped about contacting the lawyers in cases that if you needed a heart-surgeon, you would not pick the one who called you out of the blue. The practice has since become commonplace among almost all law firm Supreme Court practices and the several Supreme Court litigation clinics in law schools.

Blog

Goldstein founded SCOTUSblog, a prominent blog covering the Supreme Court. In 2013, SCOTUSblog received the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media. It is the first blog ever to receive the Peabody. It also won the 2013 Society of Professional Journalists prize for deadline reporting for its coverage of the Supreme Court’s healthcare ruling. It serves as a constantly updated site for information and news about the Supreme Court — the submissions of new petitions, decisions concerning certiorari, decisions concerning stays of lower court decisions — particularly executions, oral arguments, and final decisions in all cases. In 2010, SCOTUSblog became the only weblog to receive the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award for fostering public understanding of the law. While generally regarded as objective, the blog on occasion is the subject of criticism from commentators on both the left and the right.

Other notable activities

Goldstein previously taught Supreme Court Litigation at Harvard Law School, and at Stanford Law School from 2004-2012.
In 2013, Goldstein was elected to the American Law Institute and he currently serves as an Adviser on ALI's Restatement Third, Torts: Intentional Torts to Persons.

Media and professional recognition

Goldstein has been recognized as: