The case is driven not by law but by politics. - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
"What makes Bragg’s position even weaker is that the federal prosecutors looked at the very case Bragg sees as criminal and declined to prosecute." . . .
"New York state governmental corruption metastasized after the Civil War. Mayor William “Boss” Tweed’s famous ring in New York City elevated kickbacks to a high art. His ability to deliver votes ensured that legislators found it in their interest to give him plenty of cover. When the arch-robber baron Jay Gould tried to stop fellow robber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt’s stealthy attempt to grab control of the Gould’s Erie Railroad, Gould created 50,000 more shares of Erie stock, diluting Vanderbilt’s shares. Running away to New Jersey to escape criminal charges, Gould and his confederates bribed enough legislators in Albany to buy a post facto rewrite of the criminal code legitimizing what he had done.
"Eventually, demand for reform grew. Boss Tweed went down on graft charges and ended his days in the Ludlow Street Jail. New legislators set reforms in motion, one of which was a constitutional amendment banning the legislature from incorporating other laws in their legislation by mere reference. This happened in other states swept by the reform movements of the time. A similar ban in New Jersey was in a state Supreme Court ruling for the purpose of clarity: Legislators would know clearly the content of the bill they were voting on, and the people would know what it required of them.
"The New York Constitution includes this provision today in Article III, Section 16. It reads:
No act shall be passed which shall provide that any existing law, or any part thereof, shall be made or deemed a part of said act, or which shall enact that any existing law, or part thereof, shall be applicable, except by inserting it in such act.
"In other words, no hiding of laws inside laws. If it is to be law, let it be set forth explicitly." . . .
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