Judge Hands Kucinich a Right to Debate

What's law got to do with it?

A Las Vegas judge has ordered MSNBC to allow Dennis Kucinich to join the Democratic debate in Nevada Tuesday night, and threatened an injunction stopping the debate if he isn't included. Where he found this "right to be part of a televised debate" is anyone's guess. It's probably buried somewhere in the penumbras of the 1st, 4th, 9th and 14th Amendments -- kind of an inverse corollary to that elusive "right of privacy."

But the beauty of our legal system is that the judge never has to explain where he got the law. He only, apparently, has to explain that (a) he thinks it is unfair that he was uninvited after being invited, and (b) it is in the public's best interest to hear Kucinich.

The best interest of the public apparently does not include hearing relevant candidates go head to head. Instead, the public has to be endlessly exposed to the impotent meanderings of sundry candidates whose best shot at seeing the inside of the White House involves a long line near the gate.

A somewhat befuddled NBC noted that they did not believe the judge had any jurisdiction in the matter. Jurisdiction nothing. How about any color of law?

And, as usual, the mainstream media reports on the story utterly miss the question of whether the judge had any authority here. It's as if -- and I think this may very well really be the case -- as if it was simply years ago conceded that judges are empowered to do anything they feel is in the public interest.