SACRAMENTO, CA - Several years ago the government of California, which has better things to do, scolded residents for their eating habits, prompting a response in this space. The sequel involves a weighty tale of a different sort, with a potentially huge conflict.

In one corner stands the challenger, Caesar Barber, a maintenance worker from New York, standing five-foot-ten and weighing in at 272 pounds. In the other corner stand the heavyweight champs of the fast-food industry, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. The challenger has been chowing down at such fast-food joints four and five times a week since the 1950s, he told reporters. But now Mr. Barber and seven others have filed suit against the fast-food companies for making them obese and giving them health problems such a diabetes and heart attacks.

Such a suit, Jay Leno speculated, would prompt the fast food chains to hire the equivalent of bartenders. These would look over customers and if they saw a profile like that of Mr. Barber would say, “I’m sorry sir, but you’ve had enough. Now back away from the Whopper.” The suit also recalls the joke about using lawyers instead of rats for a lab experiment because “there are some things that rats just won’t do.”

The foreign press, unrestrained by the American regime of political correctness, also had a field day. “Tubbies Sue Firms That Made Them Fat,” read the headline in the Liverpool Echo. “Fatties Sue McDonalds for Making Them Fat,” said the Mirror. The legal action, however, does invite scrutiny.

Note that Mr. Barber’s suit does not target Betty and Frank’s Burgers, Jimmy’s Chicken Shack, Ricky’s Ribs, or any other local, independent establishment in New York, even though their food would not differ substantially from that of the national chains. The suit targets McDonald’s and others because their deep frying has given them deep pockets. Mr. Barber and his attorney, Samuel Hirsch, with visions of recent tobacco settlements dancing in their heads, are seeking a king-size helping of money. That’s the way people want to get money today, instead of working hard to produce useful products and services. People also want to avoid responsibility for their own actions.

Wendy’s, KFC, and Burger King have never touted their menus as health food, and the dietary demerits of fast food have never been a secret. Colonel Sanders did not employ staff to coerce people into eating establishments. Mr. Barber ate at Burger King and Wendy’s of his own volition, choosing to eat there rather than someplace with healthier fare. Mr. Barber should, therefore, be responsible for his own heft, just as he is responsible for his own health.

Personal responsibility is a cornerstone of a free and civil society. Human beings are independent moral agents with the ability to think and to choose. To treat them otherwise, by making them helpless victims of forces beyond their control, is to dehumanize them, not help them. By the logic of Mr. Barber’s suit, people could sue a health-food restaurant because they found themselves becoming gaunt and listless.

The denial of personal responsibility breeds the litigious society, a trend that should be stopped. It’s almost football season and the courts should punt this case right out of the stadium.

K. Lloyd Billingsley is editorial director of the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco. He can be reached via email at klbillingsley@pacificresearch.org.