She graduated from Albert P. Brewer High School, then enrolled at the University of Alabama, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in 1987.

After graduating from law school, she began covering legal affairs for the Tribune, which put her on the Supreme Court beat in 1994.

[2] In 1996, she won the Tribune's top reporting award for her work in a 13-part series on the South a generation after the civil rights movement.

[2] In his first television interview, Chief Justice John Roberts talked to Crawford about the court, his views on the law, and his life since taking office.

She helped to provide live, gavel-to-gavel coverage on PBS of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito,[2] and served as the Supreme Court analyst for Face the Nation on CBS.