meaning of New Texan law."

There was a brief silence; both the court and the spectators were
stunned, and most stunned of all were the three Bonney brothers, who had
been watching, fear-sick, while I had been putting a rope around their
necks. The uproar from the rear of the courtroom gave Judge Nelson a
needed minute or so to collect his thoughts. After he had gotten order
restored, he turned to me, grim-faced.

"Ambassador Silk, will you please elaborate on the extraordinary
statement you have just made," he invited, as though every word had
sharp corners that were sticking in his throat.

"Gladly, Your Honor." My words, too, were gouging and scraping my throat
as they came out; I could feel my knees getting absurdly weak, and my
mouth tasted as though I had an old copper penny in it.

"As I understand it, the laws of New Texas do not extend their ordinary
protection to persons engaged in the practice of politics. An act of
personal injury against a politician is considered criminal only to the
extent that the politician injured has not, by his public acts, deserved
the degree of severity with which he has been injured, and the Court of
Political Justice is established for the purpose of determining whether
or not there has been such an excess of severity in the treatment meted
out by the accused to the injured or deceased politician. This gives
rise, of course, to some interesting practices; for instance, what is at
law a trial of the accused is, in substance, a trial of his victim. But
in any case tried in this court, the accused must be a person who has
injured or killed a man who is definable as a practicing politician
under the government of New Texas.

"Speaking for my government, I must deny that these men should have been
tried in this court for the murder of Silas Cumshaw. To do otherwise
would establish the principle and precedent that our Ambassador, or any
other Ambassador here, is a practicing politician under--mark that well,
Your Honor--under the laws and government of New Texas. This would not
only make of any Ambassador a permissable target for any marksman who
happened to disapprove of the policies of another government, but more
serious, it would place the Ambassador and his government in a
subordinate position relative to the government of New Texas. This the
government of the Solar League simply cannot tolerate, for reasons which
it would be insulting to the intelligence of this court to enu