Last week, we got back to our roots.

I Swear’s roots are in the actual verbatim record, as created in the courts of the world. We shared a few bits of courtroom dialogue, all of which were published in a 1995 book, Perry’s Dead! (And the ‘Juice’ is Loose). Today, we offer more from that book.

In 1989, the Internal Revenue Service sued a couple whose name I shall not mention. Here, though, is an edited excerpt of their pro se answer, as filed in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas:

“We object to plaintiff’s attempt to attach personal jurisdiction to us. Personal jurisdiction can only be made within the venue for which it is prescribed. Without personal jurisdiction, no preamble inhabitants can be coerced by order resulting from the pretended service of process.

“The state of Kansas, as defined by its constitution, in comparison to the statutory district of Kansas, as defined by Congressional statute, shows that we are outside the venue of your jurisdiction.

“These two venues are completely different legally. To make it understandable, one must pretend that there are two areas known as Kansas which are exactly alike geographically, although each contains different inhabitants and property in a legal sense. The part that is confusing is that, in reality, there is only one land mass known as Kansas.

“We are within the venue defined by the Kansas Constitution, for Kansas inhabitants, for Sedgwick County. The venue outside Kansas’s boundaries, as defined by its constitution, is the Internal Revenue Code that authorizes the president to define Internal Revenue Districts for taxpayers, IRS agents and other persons.

Internal Revenue Districts are venues established for administration of Internal Revenue Laws.

“We, who are persons in a common law venue, have no legal obligation to the IRS law and the process goes beyond its statutory regional venue. That is what is meant when courts say that each of the states and the United States are sovereign within their own sphere of authority. ‘Sphere of authority’ and ‘venue’ mean about the same thing. We move for dismissal for lack of jurisdiction.”

In the signature block, following the pleaders’ names, was the following parenthetical: “Preamble Inhabitants of the Posterity, Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas.”

In a footnote, the author of Perry’s Dead speculated whether the pleaders were aware “of a not totally dissimilar situation’s being reported” in a 1986 published opinion out of the Fifth United States Circuit Court of Appeals. “Convicted of failure to file tax returns, appellant pleaded that he ‘is a dejure citizen of the State of Texas, under principles of jus sanguinis and jus solis’ and that his ‘status is different than most of the automatons inhabiting our lands today.’”

Ponder that for a week and then we will serve up some more highlights from “the record.”

Vic Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock, Ark., where he also teaches at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Contact him at [email protected].