For generations, the first Monday in October was a fixed point on the legal calendar: the day the Supreme Court began its new term. But according to a recent Above the Law piece, that association has been eclipsed. The post, titled "These Days, The First Monday In October Only Means One Thing," opens by observing that the date "wasn't always a time for dread."
The implication is clear: what was once a routine, even ceremonial, marker of the judicial year has become something heavier. The excerpt does not specify what that "one thing" is, but the framing suggests anxiety has replaced tradition. The piece offers no further detail in the available text, so readers are left with the contrast between the old meaning and the new one.
If the shift is real, it reflects a broader change in how the public perceives the Court's calendar — less as a predictable ritual and more as a source of apprehension. But with only this single source, the precise cause of the dread remains unstated.