You say “a-mee-cus,” Justice Breyer says “a-mike-us”

As readers of this website are effectively conscious, the Supreme Court docket is deeply divided on a variety of consequential points. How ought to the justices take into account historical past when they’re deciphering the Structure? When ought to the court docket grant requests for momentary emergency aid, and the way much of an explanation ought to it present when it acts on these requests? How a lot energy ought to courts and the manager department wield?

With out downplaying the seriousness of those points, there are different – considerably much less weighty – points that additionally intractably divide the justices, together with the attorneys, journalists, and students who observe the court docket.

The “emergency docket”?

To seek out such a difficulty, you don’t must go any additional than the requests for momentary emergency aid talked about above. These requests (together with principally the whole lot else that isn’t on the court docket’s deserves docket) have lengthy been often known as the “emergency docket,” as Justice Elena Kagan referred to it throughout a latest look at a judicial convention in California. However in his own appearance at a judicial conference in Missouri, Justice Brett Kavanaugh referred to it because the “interim orders docket” – maybe a nod to the truth that the court docket usually takes weeks, if not months, to rule on the requests, undermining the concept there’s an “emergency” at hand.

Neither justice used the time period “shadow docket,” a phrase coined a decade ago by College of Chicago regulation professor William Baude and made well-known within the 2023 bestseller of the identical identify by Georgetown regulation professor Stephen Vladeck. (Although Kagan used this phrase in a 2021 dissent.) Baude meant the phrase to sign the extent to which the court docket operated outdoors of public view – within the shadows, so to talk – however some justices will not be a fan of it. In a 2021 speech, Justice Samuel Alito criticized members of the media for utilizing the “sinister” phrase, contending that it depicted the court docket as “having been captured by a harmful cabal that resorts to sneaky and improper strategies to get its methods.”

Within the final 12 months or so, as requests for momentary aid have each elevated and continued to maneuver at comparatively gradual paces, different court docket watchers have proposed various phrases to explain the emergency docket.

Even the Dispatch Prolonged Authorized Universe, as we prefer to name it right here at SCOTUSblog, is split. David French, the New York Occasions columnist who’s a “everlasting visitor” on the Advisory Opinions podcast, prefers the term “equity docket,” as a result of the court docket considers (amongst different issues) the equity of granting aid.

David Lat, the writer of the Authentic Jurisdiction Substack and the founding father of the authorized information website Above the Legislation, thinks it must be the “short-order docket.” In a latest Substack post, Lat embraced the comparability to cooking. “Observers of the Court docket want to recollect,” he wrote, “that what we’re getting on the short-order docket isn’t the identical as what comes out of the deserves docket, the place the justices benefit from full briefing, oral argument, and far more time.”

SCOTUSblog govt editor (and Lat’s husband) Zach Shemtob is a fan of the time period “interim-relief docket,” on the idea that it most precisely describes what the court docket is doing with requests for emergency (or emergency-ish) appeals. And because the editor, Shemtob had the final phrase in SCOTUSblog’s StatPack, referring to it because the “so-called emergency/shadow docket.”

Overseas languages are exhausting

In response to one 2017 story, lower than 3% of U.S. college students examine Latin. That will assist to clarify the disagreements on pronounce two key authorized phrases which are widespread in Supreme Court docket proceedings. The primary is “amicus,” that means “good friend of the court docket.” It’s the title of the podcast co-hosted by Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern of Slate, who pronounce it “am-a-cus.”

Chief Justice John Roberts and Kavanaugh voted collectively 91% of the time in the course of the 2024-25 time period. It’s maybe no shock, then, that additionally they pronounce “amicus” the identical approach: “a-mee-cus.” (Lawyer Roman Martinez, who clerked for each males, additionally says it that approach.)

Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired from the court docket in 2022, took a special method to the phrase. He pronounced it “a-mike-us” – a pronunciation that his fellow justices not often, if ever, imitated.

One surefire technique to keep away from the controversy? Eschew the legalese and simply say “good friend of the court docket.”

Legal professionals searching for assessment of a lower-court choice file what is named a “petition for a writ of certiorari” – a short searching for assessment of that call. Like “amicus,” the phrase “certiorari” is Latin, that means “to be extra totally knowledgeable.” If the petition is granted, then the decrease court docket sends the Supreme Court docket the document within the case in order that it will possibly totally assessment it.

That course of could also be comparatively simple, however the pronunciation of “certiorari” isn’t, as explored in an Advisory Opinions episode in June. The justices pronounce the phrase a minimum of three alternative ways. Justice Sonia Sotomayor says “cer-sha-are-ree,” whereas each Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Alito say “cer-shore-rahr-ree.” Roberts, for his half, makes use of “cer-shore-rare-rye.”

Not like the justices, many people by no means must say the phrase out loud. In case you do, there are a minimum of two different choices: You need to use the favored abbreviation “cert.” – about which there is no such thing as a dispute – or (as soon as once more) skip the legalese altogether and confer with a “petition for assessment.”

Buddy or foe?

What do you name the lawyer sitting on the opposite facet of the lectern from you? In some unspecified time in the future after his arrival on the court docket, Roberts – maybe hoping to foster an environment of collegiality – began to refer to an arguing lawyer’s opponent as “your good friend on the opposite facet.” It’s a little bit of a mouthful, notably whenever you attempt to flip it right into a possessive (“your good friend on the opposite facet’s”?), so it’s typically shortened to “your good friend.”

Not surprisingly, attorneys who argue usually earlier than the court docket have adopted the chief justice’s lead. And so have a number of of the justices. Through the 2024-25 time period, Kavanaugh, Jackson, and Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch all made references to “your good friend (or associates) on the opposite facet.”

Through the 2024-25 time period, Sotomayor agreed with Roberts in solely 50% of carefully divided circumstances, in accordance with SCOTUSblog’s Stat Pack. She parted methods with Roberts on this query too, opting as an alternative to make use of the phrases “your adversary” and “opposing counsel,” that are generally used elsewhere however arguably much less collegial.

Right here too there appears to be a reasonably simple various (which the justices themselves additionally typically use): the lawyer’s precise identify.

Sound bites

Amicus:

— Throughout arguments in A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, School District, Independent School District No. 279, Roberts says amicus at 00:03:56 and Martinez, a former clerk for Roberts and Kavanaugh, says it at 00:04:20.

— Throughout arguments in Biden v. Texas, Kavanaugh says amicus at 01:00:17.

— Throughout arguments in Berger v. North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, Breyer says amicus at 01:05:28.

Certiorari:

— Throughout arguments in A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, School District, Independent School District No. 279, Sotomayor says certiorari at 01:14:03.

— Throughout arguments in Martin v. United States, Jackson says certiorari at 00:38:14.

— Throughout arguments in Starbucks Corporation v. McKinney, Alito says certiorari at 00:30:24.

— Throughout arguments in Riley v. Bondi, Roberts says certiorari at 00:07:35.

Buddy (or adversary) on the opposite facet:

— Throughout arguments in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Barrett says good friend on the opposite facet at 00:56:37. Lawyer Hashim Mooppan says it at 00:19:52.

— Throughout arguments in A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, School District, Independent School District No. 279, Gorsuch says associates on the opposite facet at 01:05:05.

— Throughout arguments in Esteras v. United States, Kavanaugh says good friend on the opposite facet at 01:04:06.

— Throughout arguments in Perttu v. Richards, Jackson says good friend on the opposite facet at 00:59:18.

— Throughout arguments in Cunningham v. Cornell University, Sotomayor says your adversary at 00:27:33. She says opposing counsel at 00:16:44 throughout arguments in Bouarfa v. Mayorkas.

— Throughout arguments in Martin v. United States, legal professional Frederick Liu says my good friend at 00:26:30.