The Wheels of Justice Grind Slowly…

…but this time, at least, they ground pretty fine. I had forgotten the story of Amiri Baraka, the Poet Laureate of New Jersey–an absurd fact in itself–who wrote a poem called “Somebody Blew Up America” in which he alleged that the Jews had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks. We wrote about it at the time, but I lost track of what happened thereafter. It appears that the Governor and legislature were foiled in their efforts to fire Baraka on First Amendment grounds, so Governor McGreevey simply eliminated the post of Poet Laureate.
Earlier today, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld McGreevey’s action, ruling that it was “legislative and not political in nature and therefore qualified for immunity.” Without reading the opinion I’m not sure exactly what that means, but, to coin a phrase, all’s well that ends well.

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