Must I Show my Name Written Therein?

To round out my list of sayings we don't say, a witty moment from a dark chapter, the 1637 trial of Anne Hutchinson.

Judge John Winthrop argued in court that the Bible banned women from preaching:

Court: [Y]ou show not in all this, by what authority you take upon you to be such a public instructor . . .

Hutchinson: I have given you two places of Scripture.

Court: But neither of them will suit your practice.

Hutchinson: Must I show my name written therein?

Pretty funny! I yearn to quote it when, for example,

• People say the Constitution includes a "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures," but not a right to privacy.

• The Supreme Court says that the law allows Joe Biden to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision" of student loans, but not just any old statutory or regulatory provision.

Now occasionally your name is therein. Star Trek: Voyager reportedly cast Robert Duncan McNeill after his agent noticed a call for "a Robbie Duncan McNeill type." And for her show Mary Tyler Moore reportedly suggested, "somebody who can play sickeningly sweet, like Betty White."

In fact the so-called "major questions doctrine" roughly equals the Hutchinson Standard. Photo: George Brayton, “Statue of Anne Hutchinson, Boston, State House,” via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Public Library, Digital Public Library of America, Wikimedia Commons. Transcript: worldhistory.org. Robert Wellman Campbell, "Must I Show my Name Written Therein?" RSS Longa, 27 March 2025, public domain via CC0 1.0.