[javajosh]

>How is this legal...

In theory, legality is the Judge's opinion of the law applied to circumstance. To even approach this state is extremely expensive and takes a great deal of time - on the order of years.

So, for the most part we're all on our own. And in that context, legality doesn't matter. At all. What does matter is leverage. The justice system itself is, ironically, most often used as leverage, not as a service for determining legality, but as a threat of the expense and time of getting to that determination.

It's sickening, but that's how it is.