On the first Tuesday in November 1789, the first session of the United States District Court in Manhattan was convened. It was a momentous, if fleeting, event: No cases were heard that day.

“No business being before the court,” The Daily Advertiser reported, “the same was immediately adjourned.”

Now, more than two centuries later, that brief hearing has become the unlikely focal point of a debate that has divided judges, constitutional experts and legal historians, and has created a boisterous battle over whose district court came first.

The federal court in Manhattan, today called the Southern District, claims on its website that that session was “the first sitting of any court created under the new Constitution.” Calling itself “The Mother Court,” the Southern District has been partying all fall in celebration of its 225th anniversary.