The “Southworth Project”: A Collaborative Approach to Teaching Judicial Reporting

By Robert E. Drechsel

        This article tells of an effort to bring together a small group of law and journalism students to produce an in-depth coverage of a Supreme Court case.  This effort was labeled “The Southworth Project”.

            Usually coverage of the Supreme Court is criticized as being shallow, imprecise, inaccurate and sloppy.  The approach to overcoming this stereotype has been to hold conferences for attorneys and judges to focus on fair-trial issues. The Southworth Project examines a case involving the University of Wisconsin.  In 1996 Scott Southworth sued the school for violating his first amendment rights. He complained of the schools mandatory semester fee.  The federal district court took the side of the student and declared the fee unconstitutional because it was a form of compelled speech and association. Scott Southworth and several other students then took it upon themselves to get together students to further investigate the case and also receive academic credit for it.

           At the end of the project the students agreed that it was a worthwhile expenditure. They explain that students everywhere should do projects like these more often. The project allowed the students to learn more about the law, the journalistic process and the legal process.