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“Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the Court.” It’s the one phrase that is common among all SCOTUS arguments. But where did it start? Well, I don’t know! But I can tell you that it started well before SCOTUS existed. That is, this phrase dates back to the English courts from which much of U.S. court tradition spawned from.
Early recordings of this phrase are found in plays by Ben Jonson, a pre-Shakespeare playwright. The phrase was used in his 1601 comedy, The Poetaster and in his 1606 comedy, Vulpine; or, the Fox. The phrase was used by another author, Victor Hugo, in his famous 1831 novel, the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
In the United States, different versions of the phrase were used in the 19th century. The most common was, “May it please the court,” but other versions were: “May it please your honors,” and “If the Court please.” In the U.S. Supreme Court, the custom has been a variation of “Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the Court” either with the “and” or without the “and.” Finally, in the 1990s, the clerk of the Supreme Court, William K. Suter, published the Guide for Counsel, which directs counsel to use the exact phrase, “Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.” This guide is available on the SCOTUS website (though it has been updated several times). That put an end to the question of the “and.”
So how about the “Mr.” portion? It’s not a problem because we have never had a female Supreme Court Justices, right? Well, sort of. There was one day when a woman presided the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Rehnquist was ill and Justice Stevens was absent, so Justice O’Connor presided in the great chamber for the day. So the advocates did have to deal with the question. The advocates addressed the court by saying, “Justice O’Connor, and may it please the Court.” Time will tell how the phrase will evolve when we have our first female Chief Justice. I would be fine with, “Chief Justice Hurtubise and may it please the Court.”
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