I would note that Terran's situation is not hopeless.
But beyond that, I'm happy to overturn Titan precedent if the Titans were obviously wrong: and the ruling you quote, as you've described it, seems obviously wrong to me. No realm mergers is a very, very simple rule. And asking the Magistrates to come up with a qualification for what makes two realms "equal" is a crazy big can of worms. How equal do they have to be? How friendly must they be?
No realm mergers may be a very simple rule and the Magistrates can decide on it elsewhere, but changing a rule to make it easier for you guys to decide is not a part this case. While the Magistrates may change the rules, unless Anaris or someone else can articulate how this case is any different, when a precedent has already been made that makes the questioned parties clearly innocent I don't know how any Magistrate could say they are being just to say this case is guilty.
My thoughts are this:
I see a lot rule lawyering trying to justify this merger. I've played the game for around a decade now, and seen a lot rules come and go, the implementation of the social contract, and read Tom's thoughts on these things. The general gist of Tom's stance is there are written rules and there is a spirit behind the rules. If you violate one or the other it doesn't matter in Tom's eyes, its a violation. Rules lawyering and petty justifications, sesrching for loop holes is stuff Tom despises, and seeing as its his game... Don't do it. If you have to justify something with some loophole in a rule, its still a violation of the rule. The guilt here is pretty clear, and it is a second offense.
Saying it doesn't fit the case due to not actually going against all the conditionals is hardly rules lawyering. Also unless I have missed it somewhere, it hasn't been said clearly what the purpose of this rule is which is the "spirit of the rule". Tom has stated before in a case (unless I am imagining things and no I am not going to cite it right now) that while the party did technically break the rule, they didn't break the spirit of the rule aka they didn't go against the reason for the rule and declared them innocent.
