“The ‘Judicial handshake’ has been a tradition since the days of Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller in the late 19th century.” When the justices of the Supreme Court gather to go on the bench each day, and at the start of the private conferences where they discuss their decisions, “each Justice shakes hands with each of the other eight.”
“Chief Justice Fuller instituted the practice as a reminder that differences of opinion on the Court did not preclude overall harmony of purpose.”