ABA Announces 2025 Silver Gavel Award Finalists.
The American Bar Association (ABA) has announced 24 finalists for the prestigious 2025 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts, chosen from 122 entries submitted this year.
Since its inception in 1958, the Silver Gavel Awards have recognized outstanding works that enhance the public’s understanding of law and the legal system. Categories include books, documentaries, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, multimedia, drama, and literature.
“We are excited to announce the 2025 finalists and extend our congratulations to the authors and creators of these exceptional works,” said Ruth Bahe-Jachna, chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Gavel Awards, in a March 12 press release. “The submissions this year were outstanding.”
Award Selection Process
The Gavel Awards Screening Committee, made up of 50+ professionals with expertise in law and media, was responsible for reviewing all entries and making tough decisions. The 16-member Standing Committee on Gavel Awards will determine the final winners, with no more than one Silver Gavel awarded per category. Honorable mentions may also be recognized, though not in every category each year.
The winners will be officially announced on May 14 and honored at the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto on August 9, where ABA President Bill Bay will present the awards.
2025 Silver Gavel Award Finalists
Books
- Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice – Barbara Bradley Hagerty (Penguin Random House, Riverhead Books)
- By the Fire We Carry – Rebecca Nagle (HarperCollins Publishers)
- Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds – Michelle Horton (Grand Central Publishing)
- The Fall of Roe – Elizabeth Dias (Flatiron Books)
- The Most Powerful Court in the World – Stuart Banner (Oxford University Press)
- The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It – Corey Brettschneider (W.W. Norton and Company)
Commentary
- Ending Pay to Stay – St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Tony Messenger, metro columnist; Alan Achkar, executive editor)
- Strict Scrutiny: SCOTUS Hands Trump Presidential Immunity – Crooked Media (Leah Litman, Melissa Murray, Kate Shaw, co-hosts)
Documentaries
- Nature of the Crime – HBO Documentary Films
- The First Amendment: New York Times v. Sullivan – Annenberg Public Policy Center & The Documentary Group
- The Sing Sing Chronicles – NBC News Studios, MSNBC Films, Trilogy Films
- Zurawski v. Texas – Out of Nowhere Productions
Magazines
- Courting Injustice – Bloomberg Businessweek
- The Eviction Cure – Texas Monthly
Multimedia
- Brown v. Board of Education Revisited – Northwestern University Knight Lab & Spooler
Newspapers
- 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
- Untested: For Thousands of Victims Whose Rape Kits Were Ignored, Justice Remains Elusive – USA Today
Radio
- AI and the Law, Explained – Bloomberg Industry Group
- The (ir)Rational Alaskans from Cited Podcast – Cited Media
Television
- Citizen Nation – Retro Report, PBS
- High Stakes at the Supreme Court – ABC News
Upcoming Announcement
The 2025 Silver Gavel Award winners will be officially announced on May 14, with the awards ceremony scheduled for August 9 at the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto.
For more information on the Silver Gavel Awards, visit the ABA’s official website.
