From: TruthMonger <tm@dev.null>
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 22:07:55 -0700 (PDT)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse
Message-ID: <352DA9F3.3711@dev.null>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Favorite Courtroom Scene #137:

A debate arises over the 'proper interpretation' of a particular law,
or section of the law.
None of the legal eagles with decades of experience in the study and 
practice of the law can agree, so the Judge orders a break in the 
action, whereupon everyone dives into mountains of information 
contained in both fresh and dusty graven tablets and eventually they
all return to the courtroom to further disagree as to what constitutes
obeying the law, and what constitutes a violation of the law.
  Finally, the judge makes a decision (which may be confirmed or
overturned in the future by other people with even more years of
study and experience in the practice of law) and the defendant
becomes an innocent lamb or a fire-breathing devil, according to
the judgement.

  The beautiful insanity of the preceeding is only fully manifested
when the defendant protests that he hadn't really meant to transgress
against the law of the land, and the Judge, who based her final
decision on a single line of legislation enacted in 1854, and not
noticed nor referenced since the day it was passed, tells the
defendant that "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

[Note: If you are unaware of whether the law in Moose Jaw,
 Saskatchewan, requiring pedestrians to walk on the 'right'
 side of the sidewalk, was or was not recinded, then your 
 qualify as a member of the 'criminal element,' in potential,
 if not in fact.]