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Justice (abbreviation: name, J. and other variations) is an honorific style and title traditionally used to describe a jurist who is currently serving or has served on a supreme court or some equal position.Garner, p. 480. In some countries, a justice may have had prior experience as a judge or may have been appointed with no prior judicial experience. It is predominantly used today in the United States to distinguish those who serve on the U.S. Supreme Court from judges who serve on a lower court. Other countries, such as New Zealand and India, similarly use the title as a form of address for members of their highest courts.
The earliest record using the word justice to describe an official appears in La Vie de Saint Thomas Becket, a French biography of Saint Thomas of Canterbury written in 1172. Its usage of the word justice referred to a judge in the service of the King of France. These early justices were members of French French nobility and were primarily administrators rather than those with formal training in legal affairs.Boatright, p. 739.
Within state courts, those who serve on the highest appellate court are likewise called justices, whereas those who serve on lower courts are judges. In most states, they are legally designated as justices, rather than as judges, with the only exception being Texas, where the title is divided between a civil and criminal court. Judges on a state's lower courts are also legally designated, with the exception being only a few states.
In 1980, in anticipation for the possibility of a female justice joining the Supreme Court, it was agreed that the Mr. in Mr. Justice would be dropped. Thus, since 1980, the honorific Mr. is no longer appended to the names of justices in Supreme Court Reports, e.g. Justice Brennan's name would be given, not as Mr. Justice Brennan, but solely as Justice Brennan.
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