Illustration by Joaquin Kunkel/The Gazelle

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in October 2014, pop star Ke$ha accused the producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald of subjecting her to years of abuse, including rape and unfair business arrangements.

Shortly after Ke$ha turned 18, she entered into a recording agreement with Dr. Luke’s production company, Kasz Money Inc. In her lawsuit, Ke$ha asserts that the years she worked with Dr. Luke were riddled with emotional and sexual abuse. She says that there were many times he taunted her on her appearance and at one time, even slipped her date rape drugs.

With all this in mind, it may seem unthinkable for New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich to deny Ke$ha an injunction from her contract and effectively force her to continue working with the man that, she claims, raped her. However, contract law is a little more complicated than that.

According to U.S. civil law, there are about three reasons a contract can be nullified. Firstly, a contract is void if one is under 18 at the time they signed it. Minors are not eligible to sign contracts and must have their parent or guardian sign in lieu. A contract can also be nullified if it was signed under duress. And lastly, a contract can be nullified if it contains any factual errors. Unless both parties come to a mutual consensus to terminate the contract, it pretty much stands the test of time.

None of the above conditions apply in Ke$ha’s case. Her contract with Dr. Luke was heavily negotiated and signed once she was no longer a minor. If Ke$ha’s lawyer could somehow prove that the contract is heavily one-sided, then a judge would be willing to grant an injunction. But at the end of the day, both sides have upheld their end of the bargain: While Dr. Luke is profiting from Ke$ha’s music, he did make her a platinum-selling star as he promised.

Justice Kornreich noted that, “You’re asking the court…to decimate a contract which was heavily negotiated and signed by two parties in an industry where these kinds of contracts are typical.” Cold and heartless as it may seem, she is absolutely correct. I am not saying that the abuses Ke$ha suffered are at all acceptable, but a contract doesn’t automatically dissolve because the two parties are facing problems.

We all want to #FreeKesha, but the law is clear, and sensibilities aside, a judge will rule in favor of what the law points to.