I still have to disagree Kermit. We still have laws on the books that get used that date back to the 1800's, when it suits a lawyers needs. I guarentee that you cannot find a single law that there is not another law that will contradict it, or a law that is so vauge that a lawyer can twist it to contradict it.
Here is an example that I had to deal with not so long ago. The motor vichlecal code states that no cars exaust system can produce sound that exceeds 50db at 25 feet. Pretty simple, yet the same law later says that an officer can use his own judgement to know what 50db is at 25 feet and that no offical equipment is required to test that.
So one day stitting in a parking lot of a gas station a cop pulls in walks up and ask for my license, registration, and insurance. Long story short, he writes me a ticket for excessive noise for my "FACTORY STOCK" exaust system. The only thing I had was a crome tip on it to make it look good. In court I argued that the exaust system was the factory exaust system, and was told by the judge that I have 1 week to prove that I was not exceeding the 50db limit at 25 feet, I countered asking the officer to prove I was, judge said if the officer thinks it is, than it is.
So I had to spend $85 to get an offical state inspection (no other test was good enough, had to be from DOT) of the sound from my exaust system, the result was 27 db at 25 feet. So I returned to court, evidence in hand and the judge tossed the case. But I still had to pay $85, plus another $20 total for 2 court appearances for a total of $105 for nothing! All because the law is too vauge and open to interpetation.
Here is the best part, the same cop wrote me the same ticket as I was leaving the court parking lot! Lucky for me I got the same judge, who remembered me and through the case out again, otherwise I would have had to pay out another $105 but it still cost me $10 more dollars for the court costs. This doesn't even include the lost wages for time I had to take off work.
The bottom line off all this is: If you blindly let "big brother" (whatever form it takes) have too much power and control, they will use it, just because they can. Power corrupts, total power totally corrupts.