That’s right, we have self proclaimed lawyers on the right, and they are not happy with a judge’s decision yesterday to allow Dennis Kucinich in tonight’s MSNBC debate:
However, the judgement is absurd on its face. In the first place, the state courts wouldn’t have jurisdiction for a national broadcast. Constitutionally, this case belonged in federal court, which has jurisdiction on any interstate commerce complaints. Kucinich filed his tort in state court hoping to find a sympathetic, activist judge who didn’t know much about the law, and apparently succeeded.
More offensively, the courts don’t have any business telling NBC or any other network that they have to include certain individuals in a debate. It may be a poor decision to exclude certain candidates, but the broadcast is the property of the network and it’s their decision to make. The court apparently has no respect for private property in that sense.
For a real legal analysis of this decision, I will let an actual lawyer give his rundown. Head on over and see what Glenn Greenwald has to say about this case.