The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

"In the sense of the law"

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


I was reading cases about statutory interpretation and the mischief (for my paper The Mischief Rule) and came across the greatest headnote ever:

When a person borrows a pistol for the purpose of joining in a chase for a bear, returning the pistol soon after the return from the chase, he is not guilty of going armed in the sense of the law.

Moorefield v. State, 73 Tenn. 348 (1880).

Samuel Bray is the John N. Matthews Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School.