In my last essay, I made the moral case for why the delegates to the Republican convention in Cleveland should feel free to reject Donald Trump as the GOP nominee. Their function is not to reflexively obey the 45 percent of primary voters who supported Trump, sacrificing their best judgment for the sake of a plurality victor. If they think Trump is bad for the party, they are not morally obliged to back him.

But do the rules of the convention legally require them to vote for Trump? The executives of the Republican National Committee want us to think so. The delegates are bound to obey the results of the primaries and caucuses. Trump is the presumptive nominee. End of story.