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Another Perspective
The Ninth Circuit Experience
Eavesdropping on a historic moment of opinion-making.
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?
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (9) | Leave a comment
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Denver Todd| 8.5.10 @ 8:36AM
Chipotle as a chain spends a lot of time in liberal-ville, so I guess that they get what they pay for. However, this does seem silly. I can see them intalling a curtain so nobody can see their burrito being made, but at least it would equalize the Chipotle experience.
Tenn Slim| 8.5.10 @ 9:46AM
Absolutely absurd article.
While USA declines, we are subject to meaningless chatter.
AMSP you can do better than this.
end
Semper Fi
We WILL Prevail
J.C.Eaton| 8.5.10 @ 10:02AM
Absolutely disagree Slim. The article is absurd only in the sense that the decision and what passes for its' "reasoning" is absurd. I was on the bench for over 25 years. This is an exquisite example of the jurisprudential end game. Best, and Semper Fi.
jrjr| 8.5.10 @ 4:37PM
Unless anyone doubts this kind of goings on and doesn't know - the 9th Circuit is on the left coast, and housed in Pelosiville, Ca.
WRJonas | 8.5.10 @ 4:38PM
I wonder how long it will be before our Liberal Judges declare that man -boy love is legal and pedophiles have a Constitutional right to have intercourse with anyone.The age restriction is only a razor thin redefinition away.
Then we may have true test of "tolerance" to see how many parents think that society has no right to place restrictions on any one.
Seek| 8.5.10 @ 5:16PM
Is this the most idiotic civil suit ever filed or what? This is almost up there with that guy in Washington who demanded $54 million (or thereabouts) in damages for a pair of pants allegedly ruined by the local cleaners.
We've got a dozen or Chipotle restaurants in my area. I've been to a few. Yes, it's nice to "experience" how a burrito is made. But it's even nicer eating it and paying a reasonable price with good service. In other words: Who gives a flying rat's ass about observing the construction of a burrito?
The wheelchair plaintiff, no doubt egged on by a shyster lawyer, should be lucky he's capable of eating. The company, meanwhile, will be out several hundred grand.
What's next? A blind man sues a Japanese steak house for depriving him of the opportunity of seeing a hibachi steak in progress? Litigation madness marches on.
CJohnson| 8.5.10 @ 8:48PM
Doesn't that make you want to rush out and GIVE?