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Microsoft Levels Up In Merger Game Against FTC

·31 min·2 clips

A New York appellate court called the typo a “mere scrivener’s error,” and the law still confuses judges.

1. Law360’s Pro Say frames Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard merger fight, Twitter’s fee dispute with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and Jack Karp’s report on New York marijuana expungement law. 2. Amber McKinney hosts the show with Haley Knopf, and Jack Karp appears as a senior reporter whose New York cannabis reporting drives the main legal segment. 3. The episode asks what New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act actually does when it promises relief for older cannabis convictions. 4. Jack Karp says the law automatically vacates many marijuana misdemeanors and lets people with more serious felonies petition to vacate or reduce convictions. 5. He explains that the petition route depends on showing “severe and ongoing consequences,” a phrase he says the statute never defines. 6. Karp notes that the law also lets courts consider whether relief is in “the interest of justice,” which gives judges another open-ended standard. 7. He says some judges look at arrest reports, home-search materials, and charges that never led to convictions when ruling on petitions. 8. Karp describes a New York appellate court calling one drafting problem a “mere scrivener’s error,” which points to a typo in the statute. 9. He says the typo sits in a section that appears to reference the wrong subsection when allowing a lesser conviction to replace an older one. 10. Defense lawyers Karp interviewed argue that the typo matters, but that the broader problem is the law’s discretionary wording. 11. One lawyer says the real mistake is the “in the interest of justice” language because it gives judges too much freedom to deny relief. 12. Another lawyer says the statute should focus on whether a conviction has severe and ongoing consequences, with lesser-offense substitution used only when those consequences are absent. 13. Karp says one judge denied relief after concluding the law required substitution of the highest equivalent charge under the new law. 14. He reports that the practical result varies by county, with some judges and prosecutors more open to vacating convictions than others. 15. Karp says the law matters because felony drug records can block jobs, housing, loans, certifications, and professional licenses. 16. He gives examples of a man who wants to become a teacher and a school counselor whose conviction affected his career prospects and job offer. 17. The conversation uses a direct, explanatory interview style, with McKinney pressing for definitions and practical consequences. 18. Knopf and McKinney keep the pace conversational and news-focused, moving from statutory text to real-world effects and appellate strategy. 19. Listeners interested in New York criminal law and cannabis expungement. 20. Listeners who want entertainment-only legal banter.

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