By Thursday, April 4, former President Donald Trump must pony up $175 million to post an appeal bond in the New York State fraud action to keep New York Attorney General Letitia James from enforcing the full $464.5 million judgment against his properties and bank and brokerage accounts.

The Manhattan Appellate Division’s decision reducing Trump’s requirement of posting the full amount of the judgment has been woefully misinterpreted by some as a glaring example of special judicial favoritism for Trump. In reality, the ruling as a whole strikes a fine balance between preserving Trump’s right to appeal an unusually high civil judgment and protecting New York’s hard-won judgment against a persistent white-collar fraudster.

This problem of a perceived unfair application of the law was created by the appellate court’s failure to give any rationale for its decision. It simply issued a terse one-page opinion without explanation that only set forth its ruling.

As an attorney who has practiced civil law for some 40 years, including before the appellate division, it is obvious to me that the........

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