Use Parties’ Preferred Pronouns in Court, Michigan Orders Judges

Michigan judges—from small claims to state high court justices—must use the pronouns that parties or lawyers choose for themselves, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

As an ethics mandate judges must use someone’s “designated salutation or personal pronouns, or other respectful means that is not inconsistent with the individual’s designated salutation” when addressing litigants in speech or in writing starting next year, the divided-court ruled.

The decision ends a culture-war battle fought over unusual territory: public comments to court rules. The issue transformed the normally sedate affair of Supreme Court rules updating—typically squabbles over precise language and comma placement—into ...