American Bar Association asks federal judiciary to drop 'court-appointed master'

The American Bar Association is asking the federal judiciary to stop using the term “court-appointed master” because “master” has masculine connotations and invokes slavery.

“Court-appointed neutral” is the preferred term of the ABA, which told the federal judiciary’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules that “master … refers to one (male) person who has control or authority over another; and the most obvious example of that is slavery.”