The Chief Justice:

Is he the Chief Justice of the United States, or the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? (The question was prompted by this How Appealing post and the BeldarBlog post to which it refers.) Readers familiar with my loosey-goosey views towards the language won’t be surprised that I say “both.” His generally accepted title is Chief Justice of the United States; but he’s also the Chief Justice (among all the other Justices) of a body called the U.S. Supreme Court, or colloquially the Supreme Court. He is therefore the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, just as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is also the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Ninth Circuit, and so on.

     But readers familiar with my loosey-goosey views likewise won’t be surprised that I like to support them with citations to The Authorities, for the benefit of those who are very influenced by The Authorities. (Some of those people may respond that I cite loosey-goosey Authorities, but if they reject usage, and they reject the Authorities, then what do they really have to fall back on?) So here it is: A command of the U.S. Congress (or the Congress of the United States, if you prefer), recorded in 2 U.S.C. sec. 135:

The Librarian shall make the purchases of books for the law library, under the direction of and pursuant to the catalogue furnished him by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Several other provisions do indeed refer to the Chief Justice of the United States; I’m not saying that “of the Supreme Court” is the only permissible term, or even the most common one. But the mixed usage in the U.S. Code itself supports my view that both usages are proper. So is calling him a “Judge,” which is how article III, section 1 refers to all the judges of the “supreme Court” (though article I, section 3, also refers to him as the “Chief Justice.”)

     Unless, of course, you’re arguing before the Supreme Court, and want to persuade the Chief. When that’s so, call him “the Chief Justice of the United States” — not because it’s the only right term, but because that, I am told, is the one he prefers.

UPDATE: Reader Patrick Charles notes that the original version of 2 U.S.C. sec. 135, 4 Stat. 579, uses the term “chief justice of the United States”; the U.S. Code version, though, does use “of the Supreme Court.” I haven’t checked it myself, but I trust Mr. Charles’ testimony here (he’s a law librarian). Perhaps then my 2 U.S.C. sec. 135 argument doesn’t much work — but I stick by my common usage argument.