Two laws, one night

New York's consent law for colleges and its criminal law contradict each other. Colleges must tell students that someone too intoxicated to knowingly choose cannot consent. The Penal Law, though, generally treats a victim who drank voluntarily as legally able to consent unless she was all but unconscious. The alleged 2024 gang rape at a Cornell fraternity, now in the hands of special prosecutor Letitia James, shows the cost of that gap. Albany should close it, so the law turns on the victim's actual capacity, not on who bought the drinks.