For years after the late Chief Justices Susie Sharp and William Bobbitt retired, they would eat breakfast at the Mecca before going to their downtown offices. He has eaten at the Mecca for 24 years, he explained over the phone last week, and has evolved his own tradition, a judicious system of ordering. But I order it every time it's on the menu. I really like, then I'll order the fried chicken. That's the system I use.
Seniority has no legal application here, though.
Maybe it was because he ordered the fried chicken. The women brought out plate after plate, baked chicken, meat loaf, sliced tomatoes and butter beans. Everyone was served, save the chief. He looked around at the associate justices, with their full-mouthed smiles.