“Consumers' allegations do not belly up to this bar.”

You gotta love it when judges make little jokes, as U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown did Wednesday in roundly rejecting a challenge to beer maker Anheuser-Busch InBev's acquisition of SABMiller in 2016.

The case illustrates one of the quirkier corners of antitrust law: Private plaintiffs under Section 16 of the Clayton Antitrust Act can sue to block mergers.