FINAL UPDATE (8:12pm EST): Keith Olbermann just reported on his show on MSNBC, without any commentary at all, that the Nevada Supreme Court has sided with NBC in its decision to exclude Kucinich from tonight’s debate. It will be a three person debate. I, for one, will not be watching, and have lost a great amount of respect for both MSNBC and Olbermann, who I thought for a while there were on the right track.

I wanted to quickly follow-up on Manila’s post earlier today about a Nevada judge ruling Kucinich had to be included in tonight’s debate on MSNBC.

This post over at the NYTimes’s politics blog is currently topping that blog’s most popular list. Most of the comments contend that Kucinich should be included in the debate, but dissenters argue that it is MSNBC’s “right as a private corporation” to run their debate however they like. But this isn’t what the case is about. In another much-discussed post over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald points out that the issue here is not judicial activism, but breach of contract.

The complaint (.pdf) filed by Kucinich is simple and straightforward. He alleges that he had a binding contract with MSNBC once they offered and he accepted the terms of his participation in the debate, and that MSNBC’s refusal to allow him to participate constitutes a breach of that contract. He also alleges that his exclusion violates the mandates of Section 315 of the Communications Act, which requires broadcasters — who operate the public airways, i.e., airways which are public, not private, property — “to operate in the public interest and to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance.”

This WSJ blog from about an hour ago doesn’t have much new information, but tells us to “stay tuned: another decision is possible later today.”

Read these posts, comment on them, and use them as ammo when contacting MSNBC/GE/DNC. And remember that Kucinich was also excluded from the final debates in both Iowa and New Hampshire, and now they’re trying to do the same in Nevada. In each case, Kucinich failed to meet the shifting criteria for debate, and the voters in these states lost their last chance to hear a perspective that — agree with it or not — is clearly different from the Democratic front-runners. Corporations are telling Americans who is and is not a viable candidate for president before a single vote has been cast. Is this democracy? Why aren’t we more upset?

Update: This comes from MSNBC’s own website, and was posted at about 5:15pm EST - “The debate lineup included Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois as well as former Sen. John Edwards and - by a judge’s order - Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich.” There is no mention of the result of the appeal, but this updated story does seem to confirm that Kucinich won and will be in the debate after all. Of course, MSNBC isn’t too happy, and makes it quite clear that Kucinich is not welcome. I doubt he’ll be asked many questions, if any. Still, knowing Dennis, I’m sure that won’t stop him.

Update #2: The Kucinich/MSNBC debate issue is being featured with a photo on the homepage of nytimes.com. This seems to be a direct result of the interest the story generated all around the internet, on television earlier today, and on the Times’ own blog. The Times updated their coverage at 6:11pm EST by reporting that:

“One hour after the Supreme Court hearing was scheduled to conclude and three hours before the debate was expected to begin, the court had yet to announce a decision, leaving it unclear whether Mr. Kucinich would participate in the debate.”