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"His Most Gracious Temporary Restraining Order"—Most Texan or Most Un-Texan?

What an odd locution to see in Texas court orders.

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


I just ran across this boilerplate, which seems to be common in some Texas courts [UPDATE: apparently all in Dallas] but, thankfully, not elsewhere:

What, are we in England, talking about Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen? I'm all for graciousness in action, but referring to a court's deeds as "most gracious" strikes me as not quite in keeping with the American spirit.

I've also seen this locution in older reported Texas cases dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, where parties "pray[ed] that your honor immediately grant his most gracious writ of injunction," and in some other almost exclusively Southern cases. Texas lawyers, any perspective on this?