The Mother Court: A.K.A., the Southern District Court of New York

No one quite knows when the name “Mother Court” originated, or who first coined the phrase. This is perhaps because the court traces its origins to the Judiciary Act of 1789, and antedates by a few weeks the organization of the U.S. Supreme Court. One of the first lawyers admitted to practice before it was Aaron Burr. Whatever the provenance, the name stuck.