Bragg’s case is a ‘disaster’, warnings from Johnson’s victory and other commentary
Legal take: Bragg’s Case Is a ‘Disaster’
“Tuesday was historic for the rule of law in America, but not in the way” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg “would have imagined,” quips law prof Jed Handelsman Shugerman at The New York Times. Bragg’s “34 half-indictments” against Donald Trump were “a disaster” — a “setback for the rule of law” and a “dangerous precedent for prosecutors.” Bragg doesn’t specify “the core crime that would turn a filing misdemeanor into a felony.” Laws about federal “preemption” and “jurisdiction” complicate matters, and Trump has a “substantial chance of winning” if this goes to the Supreme Court. Even if Bragg prevails, “would a trial eight or more years after the underlying events, either at the height of the 2024 election or soon after, really be a win for the rule of law?”
Sports desk: Trans-Athlete Media Bias
“Corporate media outlets usually love speaking to women’s advocacy groups. Not ones that fight for fairness in equality in sports, though,” muses Outkick’s Dan Zaksheske of an AP report on the case of trans girl Becky Pepper-Jackson’s suit to continue competing against other girls in track-and-field, though West Virginia law bans it. The story pointedly cites another W. Va. law as “banning gender-affirming care for minors,” which Zaksheske notes really means “not allowing children to undergo major” surgery and other life-altering “care.” The AP also failed to get comment from a women’s group “that works to defend women’s sports from the threat of allowing men to compete” but “did use information from Movement Advancement Project, which they defined as ‘a pro-LGBTQ rights think tank.’ Don’t worry, though, the Associated Press simply ‘reports the news.’ ”
Libertarian: Dungeons & Dragons’ ‘Racism’
Wizards of the Coast, which publishes the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, is eliminating its “ ‘half-elf’ and ‘half-orc’ races” in a new update, claiming that “half construction is inherently racist,” groans Reason’s Robbie Soave. Currently, players can “make a character with mixed racial traits,” but going forward, “the official materials are dropping these classes due to concerns of inherent racism.” The company hasn’t explained why having “half-characters” is racist,” but it nonetheless is “also committed to removing the word race” and “replacing it with species — probably at the behest of sensitivity readers.” It does promise “the broader concept of race-based traits will remain” — but such a decision, snarks Soave, feels “half-baked.”
Chicagoan: Warnings From Johnson’s Victory
“The election of Brandon Johnson as mayor is the most important in Chicago for generations and the most politically salient urban election this century,” argues John O. McGinnis at City Journal. “It represents the triumph of the hard Left” and exposes “the raw power of public-sector unions in Illinois and in today’s Democratic Party.” It’ll “have national reverberations for years to come because [Johnson’s] administration will test the Left’s attempt to transform urban policy.” His victory offers a “warning” for both parties: For Republicans, it highlights Donald Trump’s enduring influence, since news of his indictment likely motivated the Left to vote and robbed attention from “Johnson’s deadbeat ways.” For Democrats, it’s a policy test; if his “urban progressivism” results in “urban decay,” as is likely, Dems will “lose the political center.”
Conservative: The Left’s Own ‘Jan. 6’ Moment
“There is absolutely no doubt,” thunders the Washington Examiner’s Byron York, that the just-expelled members of the Tennessee legislature “brought disorder to the House” by hijacking it “for nearly an hour on March 30, using a bullhorn to shout at and harangue their fellow legislators in tandem with noisy anti-gun protesters.” Though “Democrats bristle when anyone compares what happened that day to Jan. 6,” it’s at least “a small-scale variation” of that day. “Imagine if, on Jan. 6, three members of the House had actually joined the protesters, bringing a bullhorn to commandeer the House floor.” Which makes this “an odd spectacle in which Democrats defended the obstruction of an official proceeding, not by protesters who rushed into the House but by members themselves.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
