Thread by @marinklevy

As you know, the Supreme Court Justices have had their current building only since 1935.

This leads to a gripping question: Where were those guys for the first 146 years!? 🤔

What do you say we take a little road trip together to find out? 🚗 I’ll drive . . .

(⚖️🧵)

First stop – New York City! 🍎

The Supreme Court was born in 1789 (thanks to the Judiciary Act of that year) and lived, ever so briefly, in the Royal Exchange Building right here. 👇

(It wasn't the fanciest of beginnings - the Royal Exchange was a covered marketplace . . . )

Bonus Fun Fact: Before the Court convened, the federal court for the District of New York sat in the building on Nov. 3, 1789 – making it the 1st federal court to sit under the new Constitution!🥇

Their first business? Admitting lawyers to the bar, including Aaron Burr (Sir).⭐️

So when did the Supreme Court have its 1st session? Feb. 2 - 10, in 1790. 🎉

But honestly, it was a little awkward . . . city officials had to move the market’s butchers (🐄) and rope off the street so that the Court would be spared the “interruption from the noise of carts.”🙉

Next stop: Philadelphia!🔔

And actually, we’ve got 2 places to visit here. First up is Independence Hall. When the National Capitol moved to Philly in 1790, the Court moved, too! (So long, noisy carts! 👋)

Its chambers were first in the State House (aka Independence Hall).👇

But the Justices didn’t get too cozy there!

The Court moved over to the Old City Hall at 5th & Chestnut Streets in 1791 (👇), and there it remained until 1800, when the Federal Government up and moved to DC . . .

(I’m telling you, the Supreme Court has been around the block!)

Final stop: DC! 🦅

So the Fed. Govt moved to DC in 1800 and Congress got its fancy new Capitol Building, but the Justices didn’t have a proper home because . . . *no provision had been made for a Supreme Court building.*

(Way to treat them like the middle child, Congress.) 😢

So Congress *lent* the Court space in its new building but those poor Justices ended up changing their meeting place 6 times while there . . . and that doesn’t count when they had to convene in a private 🏡 after the British set 🔥 to the Capitol during the War of 1812!

#drama

Highlights from the time our Justices were peripatetic?

With a few exceptions (recall the whole “War of 1812” episode), they were housed in what is today called the “Old Supreme Court Chamber” from 1810 to 1860.

(It has a vaulted ceiling that has been likened to a 🎃– see 👇)

Next up, after the Senate outgrew its quarters, the Court was given its old space in 1860. (Yep, the Supreme Court got hand-me-down chambers.👕)

Referred to today as the "Old Senate Chamber," Charles Evans Hughes called it “small, overheated & barren.”😡

(Judge for yourself👇)

So how did the Justices finally get a Court of their own?

After Taft became Chief Justice in 1921, he lobbied for the Court to have its own space – physically distanced from Congress – as an independent branch of government.

(We all have to leave the nest some time. 🐦)

In 1929, the government purchased the Old Brick Capitol (👇) – which was the temporary Capitol of the United States from 1815 to 1819.

That building was then razed to make space for a new building for the Court – one designed by Cass Gilbert (noted architect & friend of Taft).

There is much to be said about the Temple of Justice that was ultimately built. To start, not everyone was a fan. (Justice Stone complained it was "almost bombastically pretentious...Wholly inappropriate for a quiet group of old boys.")🧓

But we’ll save that for another day...

For tonight, I hope the next time you think of One First Street, you'll recall that it wasn’t the first home of the Court - indeed, that our Justices have inhabited other spaces for far longer than their current 🏠.

And for a little sibling, it did alright in the end . . .

fin

(P.S. Thanks for the road trip. Hope you enjoy our scrapbook 😉.

#IHeartJudicialHistory #appellatetwitter)