The Ninth Circuit Experience

[Geee]

American Spectator:


By Christopher Orlet on 8.5.10 @ 6:06AM

Last week a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a Tex-Mex restaurant chain must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for violating the American with Disabilities Act.

The appeals court said Chipotle Restaurants violated the disabilities act because a wheelchair-bound customer could not see his food being prepared above a 45-inch-high counter and therefore was denied the complete "Chipotle Experience."
As an empathetic person, I tried to put myself, if not in the judges' shoes, then at least in a closet in the eminent jurists' chambers, thereby eavesdropping on an historic moment of opinion-making:

(Judges return to their chambers, take off robes, loosen ties, unbutton pants, kick off shoes and recline with feet on desks.)
JUDGE REINHARDT: So, how do you want to play this one?

JUDGE FRIEDMAN (Digs into dish of M&Ms. Pops several into mouth. Chews): Another damn fast food restaurant. Enough already.

JUDGE REINHARDT: They're everywhere.

JUDGE FRIEDMAN: Like weeds.

JUDGE REINHARDT: I was going to say cockroaches.

JUDGE FRIEDMAN: Them too. We used to have this nice strip over on Hillcrest. Very chic. Mediterranean, sushi, a nice kosher deli. Then some Neanderthal builds a garage mahal and lets all these damn chains move in. Bloopies, Harbys, Jimmy Jones.

JUDGE REINHARDT: Taco Bill.

JUDGE FRIEDMAN: They're the worst. Such commercials.

JUDGE REINHARDT: Yeah. The fish love that crap.

JUDGE FRIEDMAN: Next thing you know, half the haute cuisine joints are gone, out of business.

JUDGE REINHARDT: Of course they are. They can't compete with the swill them chains dish out. I mean, how much does a tub of pig fat cost?