Missing paragraph tags/empty paragraph inserted

I tried to post some problematic output on your blog. I should have just posted it here, I suppose. Comments on our site typically come out like the following when we have your plug-in activated – notice the missing paragraph tags at the beginning, and the empty paragraph inserted between the first paragraph and intended second paragraph.

<div class="mca-author" data-name="michael-drew">
I think the government may have been reluctant to want to start using the NFIB precedent against coercion, possibly out of still just not liking that it exists, but more seriously out of a desire not to commit to any positions on the point that may come back to haunt them later.
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<p>Certainly they still disagree with Roberts on the merits of whether the Medicaid expansion posed federalism questions; this case may not be so clearly on the other side of a line about federal “coercion” of the states that they want to endorse that they want to use that argument completely electively. </p>
<p>I’m guessing they’re still working through how they want to proceed on the coercion question in the world in which the NFIB Medicaid precedent exists.</p>
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