Shortest legal opinion

[snopes]

Comment: Regarding the Baby Shoes story and the linked other example of
brevity. In law school we were taught this little example of brevity. I
thought you might be amused:

A man came to the tax court and testified, "As God is my judge, I do not
owe this tax!" The judge, in perhaps the shortest legal opinion ever
rendered, replied, "He's not. I am. You do."

I dug up this story just now in the article How Not to Succeed in Law
School by James Gordon, 100 Yale L. J. 1679 at 1691 (1990-91), which
attributes the story to H. Weihofen, Legal Writing Style 41 (2d ed. 1980).
It's also referenced in a judicial opinion, Brison v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo 1983-101 (T.C. 1983), which says, "A petitioner, nearing the close of
the trial of his case, exclaimed, 'As God is my judge, I do not owe this
tax.' Judge J. Edgar Murdock was reputed to have answered, 'He isn't. I
am. You do.' See 68 T.C. XII." That citation format isn't one I
recognize, and that's as far as I've been able to track this shaggy dog
tale.

[keokuk]

I'm not sure what the citation is either. T.C. is Tax Court, but I don't know why there are roman numerals in place of the page number. (I checked 68 T.C. 12 and it doesn't match up.)

However, the quote from Brison v. Commissioner is accurate, including the citation.