If you answered "true" then you could be a New York State town justice. That state is one of thirty which still rely on colonial style town justices. In New York, a local justice needs only to be elected by small town folks whose primary source of information is the Penny Saver. Upon election they must pass a rudimentary test from which the sample question was taken. According to a recent survey by the New York Times, it is more difficult to be a hair dresser or a manicurist than it is to be a justice.

Thomas R. Buckley, a phone company repairman and New York state justice explains, "I just follow my own common sense and the hell with the law." A state investigation found him true to his word. He frequently cursed at defendents and jailed them without bail.

Some highlights from the Times survey:

• After a black defendent complained that he was referred to as "that colored man", a boat hauler and village justice Charles A. Pennington set him straight: "I could understand if he would have called you a Negro, or he had called you a nigger."
• In Westchester County judge demanded to know if a Lebanese woman was in fact a terrorist. A reasonable inquiry, perhaps. But she was before the bench for a traffic violation.
• In Delaware County, a village justice was convicted of having sex with a mentally retarded woman entrusted to his care while in St. Lawrence a justice sentenced a young girl to his house.