Each year at its Annual Meeting, the American Bar Association presents the Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts, which recognize outstanding work in the media that “fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system.” Whether you are looking for enlightenment or resolve, an engrossing read or an inspiring film or podcast, these 2026 honorees represent the best in their fields.
The 2026 Silver Gavel Awards Honorees
This year, the Silver Gavel Awards screening committee named 31 finalists after reviewing 160 entries across all media and arts categories — books, commentaries, documentaries, drama and literature, magazines, multimedia, newspapers, podcasts and TV. During the 2026 ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago, ABA President Michelle A. Behnke will present the awards to the 14 winners and honorable mentions, highlighted below.
(Note: Read the full list of 2026 finalists here and the complete list of credits for award winners and finalists here.)
Book Awards
- Silver Gavel Award: “The Jailhouse Lawyer” by Calvin Duncan and Sophie Cull (Penguin Random House). On Amazon.
- Honorable Mention: “The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North” by Michelle Adams (Picador). On Amazon.
BOOK FINALISTS:
- “The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America” by John Fabian Witt (Simon and Schuster). On Amazon.
- “And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America” by Maria Foscarinis
(Globe Pequot Publishing Group). On Amazon. - “Dismantling the Death Penalty: Research-Based Answers to the Essential Questions” by Mark Costanzo (Oxford University Press). On Amazon.
- “THE ZORG: A Tale of Greed and Murder that Inspired the Abolition of Slavery” by Siddharth Kara (St. Martins). On Amazon.
- “We The People: A History of the U.S. Constitution” by Jill Lepore (Liveright). On Amazon.
- “You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon’s Fight for Free Speech” by Brad Snyder (W.W. Norton). On Amazon.
- “American Scare: Florida’s Cold War on Black and Queer Lives” by Robert Fieseler (Random House). On Amazon.
- “People v. The Court: The Next Revolution in Constitutional Law” by David Sloss (Cambridge University Press). On Amazon.
Documentary Award
Silver Gavel Award: “Can’t Look Away: The Case Against Social Media,” DCTV & Bloomberg News.
Honorable Mention: “Ratified.”
Drama and Literature Award
Silver Gavel: “Lilly.” Film based on the life of Lilly Ledbetter and “Grace and Grit” by Lilly Ledbetter and Lanier Scott Isom.
Magazines
Silver Gavel: “Erasing the Verdict.” Bloomberg Businessweek.
Newspapers
Silver Gavel: “Zombie Debt,” Bloomberg News.
Honorable Mention: “Maryland’s District Court Commissioner System,” The Baltimore Banner (paywalled). Read as a PDF.
Podcasts
Silver Gavel: “The Last Appeal,” Dateline NBC Podcast, NBC News.
Honorable Mention: “The Rise and Fall of Agency Power: From Chevron Deference to Loper Bright,” UnCommon Law Podcast Five-Part Series, Bloomberg Industry Group. (Also a 2025 Honorable Mention.)
Television
Silver Gavel: “Birthright Citizenship: A Constitutional Test,” Newshour, PBS News.
Honorable Mention: “Rule of Law Series,” 60 Minutes, CBS News.
Websites and Multimedia
Silver Gavel: “How the Supreme Court Ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges Legalized Same-Sex Marriage,” Retro Report.
Honorable Mention: “Undocumented: Texas’ Immigration Impact in a New Trump Era,” KXAN, Austin, Texas, NBC Affiliate.
Recap: 2025 Silver Gavel Awards Winners and Finalists
For the 2025 Silver Gavel Awards, the screening committee reviewed 122 entries and named 25 finalists, highlighted below. 2025 ABA President William Bay presented the winners and finalists with Silver Gavels in August during the 2025 ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto. Read the complete list of 2025 finalists and winners, along with full credits, here.
Books
- WINNER “The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It” by Corey Brettschneider (W.W. Norton and Co.). On Amazon.
- Honorable Mention “The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America” by Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer (Flatiron Books). On Amazon.
- “Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice” by Barbara Bradley Hagerty (Penguin Random House, Riverhead Books). On Amazon.
- “By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land” by Rebecca Nagle (HarperCollins Publishers). On Amazon.
- “Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds” by Michelle Horton (Grand Central Publishing). On Amazon.
- “The Most Powerful Court in the World: A History of the Supreme Court of the United States” by Stuart Banner (Oxford University Press). On Amazon.
- “The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It” by Corey Brettschneider (W.W. Norton and Co.). On Amazon.
Commentary
- WINNER “Ending Pay to Stay.” Tony Messenger, metro columnist (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).
- “Strict Scrutiny: SCOTUS Hands Trump Presidential Immunity,” podcast hosts Leah Litman, Melissa Murray and Kate Shaw (Crooked Media).
Documentary
- WINNER “Zurawski v Texas,” Out of Nowhere.
- “Nature of the Crime,” Break Thru Films, HBO Documentary Films.
- “The First Amendment: New York Times v. Sullivan,” Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics – Annenberg Public Policy Center, The Documentary Group.
- Honorable Mention “The Sing Sing Chronicles,” NBC News Studios, MSNBC Films, Trilogy Films.
Magazine Articles
- WINNER “The Eviction Cure,” Texas Monthly.
- Honorable Mention “Courting Injustice,” Bloomberg Businessweek.
Multimedia
- WINNER “Brown v. Board of Education Revisited,” Northwestern University Knight Lab; Spooler; Respeecher; Idib Group; Neubottle. The project team reconstructed the oral arguments and the opinion from Brown v. Board of Education using human actors and artificial intelligence.
Newspaper Article Finalists
- WINNER “Untested: For Thousands of Victims Whose Rape Kits Were Ignored, Justice Remains Elusive,” USA Today.
- “Denied: Alabama’s Broken Parole System,” AL.com.
- “Meth: The Prison Pipeline,” The Dallas Morning News.
- “Prison to Plate: Profiting Off America’s Captive Workforce,” The Associated Press.
- “The Gutting of the Eighth Amendment,” Business Insider.
Radio (Podcast)
- WINNER “The (ir)Rational Alaskans from Cited Podcast,” Cited Media.
- “AI and the Law, Explained: UnCommon Law’s 6-Episode Podcast Series,” Bloomberg Industry Group.
Television
- WINNER “Citizen Nation,” Retro Report, PBS.
- “High Stakes at the Supreme Court” ABC News.
As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law. For the association’s latest statements and other information, follow ABA news at www.americanbar.org/news.
Complete information on the 2025 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts can be found at Silver Gavel (americanbar.org)
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