First Monday in October

The title refers to the day on which the United States Supreme Court traditionally convenes following its summer recess.

There was a production at the Huntington Hartford Theatre in Los Angeles in March 1979, starring Henry Fonda and Eva Marie Saint.

[5] The play begins after the death of Stanley Moorehead, an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

While playing tennis, Ruth Loomis, a staunch conservative judge from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California, learns that she is to be the nominee.

Associate Justice Daniel Snow is appalled to learn this, as her conservative views are strongly in conflict with his own liberal thinking.