Stress
The job is demanding: waking up at the crack of brunch, four-day workweeks, ninety-minute lunches, law clerk draft opinions to sign off on, no work past 6:00PM. It's nice to know judges have the hours of a college town record shop.
Of course, not all judges have that schedule, or depend on their law clerks to do everything for them. They simply have the liberty to do so. For example, the courthouse may open at 9:00AM, but lateness is legally defined as "the state or condition of absence when a judicial officer, normally a judge, requests one's presence."
As in:
Judge: "Sorry I took so long. It's getting harder and harder to get here by 10:30AM. Where's Mr. Lowball?"
Ms. Tortman: "I don't know. I saw him here an hour ago."
Judge: "Well, he's late now."