A question that always seems to come up is why are the New York lower courts called the "Supreme Court." This always confuses my students and when I was covering the NY State Courts for the School Law Reporter ... occasionally confused me. Well, Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy has the answer. Or at least his version of the answer as the comments also have a good deal of theories. Nevertheless, while I know it is a nice historical quirk, I would be fine if they changed their language to comport with the rest of the United States as I answer this question at least once a semester.