ARTEAGA v. MUKASEY
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in ARTEAGA v. MUKASEY, No. 05-70368, an administrative appeal. The panel consisted of Stephen S. Trott and Johnnie B. Rawlinson, Circuit Judges, and Samuel P. King, Senior Judge.
TROTT, Circuit Judge:
Abraham Lincoln, one of our nation’s wisest presidents and most able lawyers, had an incisive way of illustrating a point about the meaning of language as used in the law. He would ask, “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?” He would then reject the usual answer “five” with the statement that calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg, “the answer is still four.” We find useful in Part IV A. of this opinion President Lincoln’s admonition not to become misled by . . .