State v. Dixon

Surround most any straightforward proposition with enough sophistry and it will vanish — or become unintelligible. The law, like other intellectual disciplines, has tried to cope with the sophistry brought to bear upon it by applying common sense. This has, on occasion, proved to be the only mechanism available by which to dissipate the fog of rhetoric generated around some legal propositions— particularly principles of constitutional law. The Constitution of the United States declares that one of the great aims *798of free government is to insure domestic tranquility. Common sense dictates that,…