The Nevada Supreme Court, in an affirmation of the media’s editorial prerogative, ruled last week that MSNBC was free to exclude candidate Dennis Kucinich from a presidential debate that was ultimately limited to Democrat frontrunners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.  MSNBC, the debate’s sponsor, had promised to include Kucinich, but later changed its mind and disinvited him. Kucinich claimed he had a contract and MSNBC breached it.

The Supreme Court, reversing the trial court, found that there was no contract. But suppose there was. Would it be enforceable? Could it be enforced with an injunction directing the inclusion of a candidate, notwithstanding MSNBC’s news judgment that he should not be included?

SF Chronicle reporter Bob Egelcko has an interesting story in today’s paper that explores some of these these issues. You can see it here.

You can see the text of the Court’s decision here.

-PS