Courts

Federal Judges Have Some Strong Thoughts On The Courthouse Cafeteria Menu

Judges have issues with the courthouse menu and let the entire courthouse know about them.

By  
on

Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York is a noted jurist, a witty writer, and apparently not a pescatarian.

When the district executive’s office sent around the menu of this week’s offerings at the courthouse cafeteria, she shared her thoughts on the culinary offerings with the entire courthouse. Everyone. All judges, all clerks, and all staff of the SDNY.

Yeah, SDNY! Haven’t you ever heard of Vatican II? While some of the old guard Catholics — of which there are a surprising number in New York — still adhere to the idea that Fridays are for eating fish, everyone else has moved on to accept the idea that some days you just want a burger. It seems as though Chief Judge McMahon falls in the latter group.

Some might accuse the Chief of not understanding the implications of the “Reply All” button, but perhaps she was just trying to rally the SDNY’s working masses to the barricades to halt this invasion from the sea. Or maybe she suffered from the standard technology screwup. Hey, when it comes to technology mistakes, federal judges have done a lot worse.

Not to be outdone by the Chief’s court-wide email, Senior Judge Alvin Hellerstein quickly followed up. There are very few things in this world that top an unintentional reply all, but “two unintentional reply alls” is one of those things.

Sponsored

Vegetarian and tasty? Do those words even go together? I hope Judge Hellerstein enjoys pasta because that’s about all I’m coming up with.

Next week, we’ll see if the Friday menu includes steaks and grilled cheese sandwiches to make sure everyone is happy. Be careful SDNY, start making all these lavish changes to your cuisine and you might end up getting impeached.

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , ,