Inside The Ropes Covering The Supreme Court: Lydia Wheeler '09 Is Living Her Dream Career
As news reporting goes, Lydia (Wheeler) Davenport ’09 has an enviable beat.
For five-plus years, the Owl alum has worked as a U.S. Supreme Court reporter for Bloomberg Law, a subscription-based service that provides industry-leading news and analysis.
Founded in 2009, Bloomberg Law provides legal content, proprietary company information, and news information to attorneys, law students, and other legal professionals. It is one of the largest media entities of its kind in the country.
Lydia came to Keene State from Queensbury, New York, and graduated with journalism and political science degrees.
She earned a Paralegal Studies Certificate from Old Dominion University, describing that experience as “A cheap way to figure out I didn’t really want to go to law school. Writing about the law is way more fun than writing legal briefs.”
It has been anything but an uneventful period for the Supreme Court and Lydia. Rulings and coverage on guns and religious freedom, the environment, and civil rights, not to mention the Court’s June 2022 majority reversal of Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that affirmed a woman’s right to continue or end a pregnancy as constitutional.
And, at the end of the Court’s most recent term, there was a much-awaited decision about whether Donald Trump and other ex-presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for their actions in office.
The conservative justices prevailed, ruling that ex-presidents have wide, if not absolute, immunity.
Dull moments are not part of Lydia’s work days.
“Pulling back the curtain on an opaque institution like the Supreme Court is fascinating work. It’s fulfilling to be able to make complex legal issues easier to understand, as is explaining how the court’s rulings impact real lives.”
Write a legal column for Bloomberg Law? Sure. Co-host a podcast on the Supreme Court? Why not? Appear on MSNBC to discuss my coverage? Here goes nothing. … I’m always trying to become a better reporter.”
– Lydia (Wheeler) Davenport
She always wanted to be a journalist and has done everything possible to realize her dream. She feeds off the pulse of news coverage, not knowing what might come next, and the adrenalin-driven moments the profession is known to deliver.
Over time, she has sidestepped fears and moved beyond her comfort zone to tackle new storytelling methods.
“Write a legal column for Bloomberg Law? Sure. Co-host a podcast on the Supreme Court? Why not? Appear on MSNBC to discuss my coverage? Here goes nothing. … I’m always trying to become a better reporter,” she said.
Her Keene State education is her foundation. “I hope I’m an example of what’s possible. I had a valuable internship with my local newspaper and I had professors like Mark Timney, Rose Kundanis, and Michael Welsh who believed in me and allowed me to believe in myself.”
Keene State is New Hampshire’s public liberal arts college, conjoined with a vibrant, friendly, and charming public downtown. It offers the only stand-alone, four-year journalism degree program in the University System of New Hampshire and one of the few such programs in New England. The major prepares students for careers in journalism and other media production industries.
“Keene State had everything I wanted: a journalism program, a student paper, a swim team, and it was in a beautiful community. … Keene was far away from my parents. Well, the farthest they’d let me go. They’re wonderful and I love them, but at 18 I wanted to venture out on my own.”
She said the job she didn’t get resulted in the position she has.
“I wanted badly to be a beat reporter at The Virginian Pilot. Even though I had freelanced for its community papers, I couldn’t get an interview. I worked instead for the local business journal, covering everything from publicly traded companies to personality profiles. That broader experience helped me land a job in Washington, D.C. where I first started covering the court.”
Today, Lydia lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband, Jon, and their 8-year-old goldendoodle, Ted. They celebrated 10 years of marriage in 2024. Lydia calls Jon and Ted “the loves of her life.” She stays in touch with Owl alums, including her best friend from college.
She’s an avid reader, runs occasionally (“but not well”), and savors kayaking the waterways of the mid-Atlantic.
Her academic distinctions at Keene State include becoming a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and earning a place in Phi Sigma Alpha, the National Honor Society for Political Science. She worked as a student journalist for The Equinox, Keene State’s student-run newspaper.
Said Lydia, “Don’t underestimate yourself and work hard. Harder than you are. Your future self will thank you.”
Learn more about the multi-dimensional journalism program at Keene State
