I’ve spoken before about my “America feeling.” I get it when I vote, or when I read the Preamble to the Constitution, or when I listen to the very funny song “The Farmer and the Cowman” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1943 musical Oklahoma! “I don’t say I’m no better than anybody else, but I’ll be danged if I ain’t jist as good!” To me, this is one of the great dreams of the United States. 

When I get the America feeling, I often get choked up. For instance, I can’t read the words inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty without tears coming into my eyes.

For some reason, I was thinking about another time when I regularly got the America feeling.

When I was a clerk at the Supreme Court, one of the highlights of our work was when we could watch the Court in session. There were a few rows of seats behind a barrier where we clerks could sit, and observe as the Justices listened to and questioned the lawyers who presented their cases.

My very favorite part came right at the beginning. (Maybe the fact that this was my favorite part was a sign that I wasn’t destined to a career in law!)

The Marshal of the Court would announce:

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God save the United States and this Honorable Court.

These words thrilled me. They hearken back to the long traditions of our laws, and they hold the promise of being heard and of receiving justice, and of the operation of the rule of law.

I love ritual, and I felt the power of these traditional opening words. They were a reminder to everyone in that courtroom—the spectators, the lawyers, the clerks, and most of all, to the Justices themselves—of the supreme value of justice, and the great responsibility of administering it.

I never take those words, or that promise, for granted.