Ham Sandwich & Andy's Ketchup

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 7/8/02 1:43:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Bapopik at AOL.COM
writes:

> "PROSECUTING A HAM SANDWICH"
>     I put the question to Sol Wachtler today, and he laughed.  Yes, it's
his.
>  He said that Marcia Kramer, then of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, put it on the
> front page,

This sounds to me like an incorrect quotation.  There is a legal proverb "A
prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.":  It is a
satirical description of the grand jury system.  A lawyer (I think it was
William T. Barker of Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal in Chicago,
wtb at sonnenschein.com) told me that if the grand jury were not specifically
mentioned in the Constitution (5th Amendment, of all places, and maybe
elsewhere), it would long since have been declared unconstitutional.

In this context "INDICT a ham sandwich" makes sense.  I can't imagine a
context in which "PROSECUTE a ham sandwich" is meaningful.

       -  Jim Landau