Asked by others what to do, what the law would want a person to do, American lawyers will go off and find what a few old men scattered
about the country 30, 50, a 100 years ago, sitting on intermediate appellate courts in Pennsylvania or in a town in the mountains
of Kentucky, said they thought the law was at the time they spoke. They come back, put it all together, and say, "That is the law.
That you ought to obey." They expect to be paid for producing such an answer and do not expect their inquirer to exclaim "Ridiculous!"
and turn on his heel and stalk away.
Joseph Vining, The Authoritative and the Authoritarian, 1986