The source of the phrase "nine scorpions in a bottle" to describe the
Supreme Court has got me stumped. I can find nothing in the Oxford
Dictionary of American Legal Quotations. Nor do I see any source mentioned
in Max Lerner's posthumous _Nine Scorpions in a Bottle: Great Judges and
Cases of the Supreme Court_ (1994).
The popular winner in law review and newspaper references is O. W. Holmes,
but nobody cites a specific source. The references I have found (excerpted
in chronological order below) show the gradual transition from "the
justices have often been called" to "Holmes or somebody described" to "it
was Holmes who described" to "Holmes's classic phrase."
Any help would be appreciated.
Kent Olson
University of Virginia Law Library
kolson@virginia.edu
Washington Post, April 22, 1982: The justices have often been called, at
least in the Supreme Court coterie, "nine scorpions in a bottle."
New York Times, Feb. 20, 1983: [Blackmun] speaks openly of . . .his
relations with other Justices - ''Holmes or somebody described the Court as
nine scorpions in a bottle,'' he said.
New York Times, Sept. 25, 1986: Justice Harry A. Blackmun said of the
Court's members in a speech in July . . . ''You remember Holmes described
them as nine scorpions in a bottle. That's a pretty good description.''
Robert J. Steamer, _Chief Justice: Leadership and the Supreme Court_ 19
(1986): During the turbulent years when Vinson was chief, a law clerk once
characterized the Court as "nine scorpions in a bottle" . . .
New York Times, July 28, 1989: While this is hardly the first, or even the
most, stressful period in the Court's history - it was Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes who described the Supreme Court half a century ago as ''nine
scorpions in a bottle'' - the term that ended July 3 was the nastiest in
years.
LA Daily J, Feb. 1, 1990: A few years ago Harry Blackmun described the
court as "nine scorpions in a bottle."
Richard A. Posner, 104 Harv L Rev 13, 14 (1990): Justice Holmes described
the Justices of the Supreme Court as nine scorpions in a bottle.
Richard K. Willard, 5 USF Mar L J 91, 94 (1992): Tempers flare. The Supreme
Court begins to resemble, as Justice Holmes once said, "nine scorpions in a
bottle."
Washington Post, Aug. 21, 1994: Robert Henry, a judge on the U.S. Court of
Appeals in the 10th Circuit, where Ginsburg spoke, told a reporter, "You
find that they're not 'nine scorpions in a bottle,' to use [Justice Oliver
Wendell] Holmes's classic phrase. The dissension is overplayed."
CNN, Sept. 24, 1994: Richard Posner: Well, actually, that's a- that is a
serious problem with the Supreme Court, and Oliver Wendell Holmes once
described the Supreme Court justices as nine scorpions in a bottle and
that's what you're pointing to.
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