Chief Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are quick to come to mind as transformative figures in law and history. Even so, there are many other women whose names aren’t.
Court reporters have always had a large impact on capturing history for posterity, and now, linked with technology, their instantaneous recordkeeping in the courtroom is vital and unmatchable - especially on high-profile cases. Today, captioners also do wonderful work to help better the lives of millions of Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing by providing real-time captioning for live sporting and theater events, church services, movie houses, and many other venues. (Video by Stephanie Earls)
They are the courtroom officials with lightning-fast fingers and a mysterious machine, the silent sentinels of the record whose voices go unheard until some other courtroom voice is unclear, or bears repeating.