Three important legal developments announced yesterday:
- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court set Bill Cosby free on the basis that the government had violated his due process rights by breaching an old agreement not to prosecute him. Cosby subsequently told the world that he was just another innocent black man who had been railroaded by a racist system. Umm. . . no. Nothing in this decision suggests the jury verdict was incorrect. In no way is this any kind of a vindication.
- The Trump Organization is being charged with violations of criminal law in New York. The allegations apparently involve untaxed fringe benefits, not fraud. One has to assume that this is just a first step in an effort to bring a larger case against Trump himself, because the allegations, by themselves, look fairly trivial.
- A federal judge has enjoined the enforcement of the new Florida law aimed at the big tech companies on the basis that it probably violates the First Amendment. Of course it does! The new law wasn’t actually intended to do anything except hurl a large chunk of red meat at the reactionary base.