Make Morton’s Pay

The snark could have been almost witty by contrasting the claim of a “right” to a peaceful dinner with a right to an abortion, except for one detail. It wasn’t Justice Brett Kavanaugh who claimed a dinner “right,” but a spokesman for Morton’s Steak House. Contrary to popular belief, the Morton’s guy was neither the justice’s official spokesmodel nor legally qualified to assert whether dinner at a corporate steak house was a legal “right.”

Was it merely fortuitous that a group of protesters happened to be at Morton’s the evening Kavanaugh was there to dine? That’s hard to say, given that there’s a bounty for food service workers to give ready protesters a half hour to show up. Regardless, the question remains whether protesting people in official government positions at dinner, or their home, or anywhere else like their children’s schools, as opposed to their governmental office where they perform the governmental function with which others take issue, is a norm that should not be violated.

But forget Kavanaugh, for the moment, and consider Morton’s.

Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton’s restaurant. Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner. There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency.

Not that anyone cares, but buried in the Morton’s rep’s statement is a tidbit that rarely seems to make the radar, that the protests against Kavanaugh affect the other patrons of the restaurant as well. Do they not get to enjoy their dinner in peace? Was it their fault Kavanaugh was eating there too? Or are they merely collateral damage, an unfortunate sacrifice to the cause? But I digress.

The gist of the Morton’s rep’s statement was neither to take a position on abortion or the “Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh,” which might have been a bit more imperial sounding than necessary. Rather, it was about letting patrons eat in peace. Protest them all you want. Just not at a restaurant during dinner. Fair? Don’t be silly.

NEW: thousands of people are booking “fake reservations” for Morton’s Steakhouse, after the steakhouse served Brett Kavanaugh & publicly berated pro-choice protestors

Morton’s Steakhouse DC is now “fully booked” for tonight… they have dozens of other locations across the country which are rapidly being booked by pro-choice protestors

And the snark just kept coming.

Others on Twitter began to mock the restaurant and the Supreme Court justice. One user wrote, “Hate to argue with the esteemed constitutional scholars at Morton’s Steakhouse, but the protesters also have the ‘right to congregate’ or, you know, freedom of assembly.”

Another user wrote, “Brett Kavanaugh’s right to enjoy a quiet dinner at a pricey steakhouse does not supersede my right to bodily autonomy.”

But when Morton’s started canceling out the Open Table reservations made by protesters in order to prevent the steakhouse from doing business, the tables were turned on the bold and brave app warriors.

Morton’s is reportedly cancelling reservations & filing false reports with OpenTable, claiming no-shows for reservations which haven’t occurred yet

These false reports by Morton’s are against OpenTable’s TOS & could lead to Morton’s being booted from the platform for abuse

And it spiraled out of control from there.

People of color & other minority groups are reporting that they may be being *targeted* by Morton's Steakhouse with reservation cancellationshttps://t.co/zyVM9s9dtC

— LeGate (founder @ GoodPillow.co) (@williamlegate) July 8, 2022

No, this is hardly the first time people have been harassed in their homes, restaurants or on the street, and no, it’s not just the “high and mighty” like Supreme Court justices, but pretty much anyone who is the target at the moment, or even random people who have neither power nor connection to  whatever issue has the unduly passionate worked up.

1) In a scene that played out several times Monday, a Black Lives Matter protest that began in Columbia Heights confronted White diners outside D.C. restaurants,  chanting “White silence is violence!” and demanding White diners show their solidarity. #DCProtests pic.twitter.com/fJbPM76vb0

— Fredrick Kunkle WaPo (@KunkleFredrick) August 25, 2020

That people truly hate Justice Kavanaugh is understandable, regardless of the fact that justices are intentionally insulated from popular opinion in our governmental structure. That they want desperately to make their feelings known is a core right, and contrary to the legal scholars of Morton’s, there is no “right” to eat dinner in peace and protesters, assuming they are otherwise acting lawfully, are entitled to protest at a steakhouse just as they are at government buildings.

It’s not a matter of law, or right, but a matter of whether the eradication of these norms of behavior are producing a society that will serve no useful purpose (does anyone think Kavanaugh left Morton’s saying to himself the he really ought to reconsider his judicial philosophy?) and will produce ever greater antagonism and division.

For protesters, the argument that they are made “miserable” by governmental actions and decisions translates into their need and justification for making the people who took those actions miserable in turn. And then those who enabled those whom they desire to be miserable, like Morton’s steakhouse, as well. And destroy them all.

Forget Kavanaugh. Even forget Morton’s, even though it’s just a restaurant and not a powerful government force for evil. Think of every unduly passionate nutjob playing out their political fantasies of hatred. Think of the targets of the hatred of the moment losing their job when thousands of people swarm on their employer. While the unduly passionate will argue the righteousness of their idiocy to the death, this is not going to end well for anyone. And there is likely little point in saying this as it won’t prevent them from having no decency.