Mclu

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) cannot withdraw his guilty plea in the infamous 2007 Minneapolis-St. Paul airport bathroom sex case, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled today in an unpublished opinion. That means Craig is stuck with having copped in District Court to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly signaling an interest in engaging in sex via foot taps from one restroom stall to another in which a undercover police officer was staked out. The decision’s “unpublished” status means the court doesn’t want their ruling used as precedent in future cases — interesting, in view of charges that Craig sought special treatment or was being singled out for preferential or especially harsh treatment because of his status as a U.S. Senator.

In the 1990s, Bloomington successfully waded into the murky constitutional waters that swirl around questions of free speech in privately owned places that receive public funds. In the 1999 landmark ruling  State v. Wicklund, the Minnesota Supreme Court said the state constitution’s freedom of expression clause did not apply inside the walls of the Mall [...]