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Today, the Supreme Court has its own building, and each of the nine justices has offices and a staff of assistants.
But the first time the Supreme Court met in 1790, the justices didn’t have a courtroom. They didn’t even have any cases. The United States was so young—it had won its independence from Britain only recently—it wasn’t clear how the court would work. But one thing got settled right away. Back in Britain, judges wore (and still often wear) white wigs. When one of the newly appointed justices to the first-ever U.S. Supreme Court showed up wearing a powdered wig in the British style, he was mocked on the street. He was the last Supreme Court justice to make that fashion mistake.
