On the record
If the government may decide who may, and who may not, be jurors, it will of course select only its partisans, and those friendly to its measures.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “If the government may decide who may, and who may not, be jurors, it will of course select only its partisans, and those…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner warns that if the government controls jury selection, it will favor its own allies, undermining justice.
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More from Lysander Spooner
When two men meet one upon the highway, or in the wilderness, have they a right to dispose of his life, liberty, or property at their pleasure, simply because they are the more numerous party?
Since Magna Carta, we have evidence showing quite conclusively that all freemen, above the age of twenty-one years, were eligible as jurors.
The presumption clearly is that all were eligible.
It is also sheer impudence, on their part, to assume that their commands are at all necessary to teach other men what is, and what is not, justice.