I was scouring the blogosphere when I came across this delicious piece of news regarding our new Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts Jr. DCist reports that he was the justice on the Court of Appeals that upheld the conviction of Ansche Hedgepeth, 12. What did she do? She ate a french fry while riding the Metro and was subsequently searched, handcuffed, and sent to juvie for three hours.

Justice Roberts, to his credit, said it was “foolish” for WMATA police to handcuff Miss Hedgepeth, but ruled that the transit system’s rules did not violate her constitutional rights.

I don’t really have any opinion one way or another about whether it’s okay to eat on the Metro; the rules say I can’t, so I’m going to obey them. It’s the law for a good reason; it keeps our trains clean. Have you seen how many people just leave the Express lying around?

It does suck when you can’t drink coffee in the morning, but Metro makes it even more difficult NOT to bring food and drink on the train when they don’t even provide trash cans on the station platforms. Putting them back on the platforms would help keep the trains cleaner, allow people to munch away on the platforms, AND generate less negative publicity than arresting people for eating on the train.

It’s amazing how hysteria can deprive us of something as simple as a garbage can. When are those bomb-proof cans that Metro keeps promising us coming?