Annals of law

I. This judge must have been reading the New-York Ghost:

Mr. Simpson had been instructed by a justice of the peace not to have contact with anyone involved in the case — not even by “carrier pigeon.” —AP

II.

Mr. Snipes...has become an unlikely public face for the antitax movement, whose members maintain that Americans are not obligated to pay income taxes and that the government extracts taxes from its citizens illegally....
Tax deniers maintain that the law only appears to require payment of taxes. All their theories have been rejected by the courts, including the one invoked by Mr. Snipes, which is known as the 861 position, after a section of the federal tax code....
Adherents say a regulation applying the 861 provision does not list wages as taxable, though it does say that “compensation for services” is taxable. The courts have uniformly rejected all such theories, and eight people have been sentenced to prison after not paying taxes based on the 861 argument. —NYT