Nina Totenberg (born January 14, 1944) is an American legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) focusing primarily on the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1971, she broke a story about a secret list of candidates President Richard Nixon was considering for the Supreme Court.

[8] In 1972, Totenberg was fired from the National Observer for plagiarism in a profile she wrote on incoming Speaker Tip O'Neill, which included, without attribution, quotes from members of Congress that had previously appeared in The Washington Post.

[4][8] In 1995, Totenberg told the Columbia Journalism Review, "I have a strong feeling that a young reporter is entitled to one mistake and to have the holy bejeezus scared out of her to never do it again.

Totenberg revealed the results of their secret 5–3 vote against reviewing the case and that the three dissenters were appointees of President Richard Nixon.

[12] In 1986, Totenberg broke the story that William H. Rehnquist, who was nominated for Chief Justice of the United States by Ronald Reagan, had written a memo in 1970 opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, in which he said that the amendment would "hasten the dissolution of the family" and that would "virtually abolish all legal distinctions between men and women.

Totenberg and Newsday's Timothy Phelps were subpoenaed by Fleming but refused to answer questions about their confidential sources.

[16] Totenberg was confronted by one Thomas supporter, Republican Senator Alan K. Simpson, during and after the taping of an episode of Nightline.

After Totenberg defended her reporting and objectivity on the show, Simpson followed her out of the studio and continued to criticize her, even holding open the door of her limousine so she could not leave.

"[4] Following Totenberg's allegation to The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz that she had been sexually harassed at the National Observer, Al Hunt of The Wall Street Journal brought up the plagiarism incident in a column about media coverage of and responses to the Thomas hearings.

[25] Totenberg has made friends with several politicians and lawyers in national politics, and her personal connections have generated criticism.

In 2000, journalists expressed concern that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's officiating at Totenberg's wedding[26] could be seen as a conflict of interest.

[27] Totenberg did not consider it a conflict of interest since her friendship with Ginsberg was established before Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court.

[34] Early in her career, there were allegations that Totenberg obtained her scoops by untoward means, a fact Bill Kovach, editor of The New York Times, attributed to sexism.

[35] The Wall Street Journal editorialist Paul Gigot wrote in 1991 that Totenberg exhibits partisanship in her reporting.

[37] In 1995, responding to conservative Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who characterized AIDS as a "disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts" in his effort to cut government spending to combat it, Totenberg said: "I think he ought to be worried about what's going on in the good Lord's mind, because if there's retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will.

[39][41] In January 2022, Totenberg received criticism for reporting on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic related to mask-wearing at the Supreme Court.

In 2000, she married H. David Reines, a trauma surgeon and vice chairman of surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia; U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presided over the wedding.

[50] On August 6, 2015, the Ames Stradivarius violin, which had been stolen from her father in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 35 years earlier, in 1980, was recovered by the FBI after a woman sought an appraisal for it in New York City.