It's the Brian Marrishow on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. So you've been hearing the news about Congressman

Eric Swalwell, giving up a seat and abandoning his campaign for governor of California.

That's the political headline.

Here's a legal issue that may become important if Swalwell is prosecuted.

The former staffer who accused him of rape says the assault took place in a New York hotel room

after the two of them had been drinking. Swalwell denies the charge.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is looking into the case. If Bragg brings charges, he may run up against

a piece of New York law known as the voluntary intoxication exclusion. The voluntary intoxication exclusion. The exclusion makes it harder to find a defendant

guilty of a sex crime if the alleged victim voluntarily got drunk. Some states have this

exclusion. Some states don't. Members of the New York State Legislature have proposed closing the voluntary intoxication

exclusion for many years now, but the bill has never passed. Here's Assemblyman from the Bronx

Jeffrey Dinowitz last year, excuse me, last year on CNN, on New York One. In situations like

that where somebody is sexually assaulted, the cases are rarely prosecuted.

If you have a few drinks and you're drunk, that doesn't mean there's a sign on you that says,

you know, you could sexually assault me.

That's not right.

And we're trying to change that.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinovitz last year.

We'll talk now about the potential Eric Swalwell case and the voluntary intoxication

exclusion, and more broadly about law and culture nearly a decade after the height of the

Me Too movement.

Joining us is Jane Manning, a former sex crimes prosecutor who now runs a nonprofit called

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