On the record
If the authority be vested in the government, the governmnt is absolute, and the people have no liberties except such as the government sees fit to indulge them with.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “If the authority be vested in the government, the governmnt is absolute, and the people have no liberties except such as…”
Editor's note · Context
He warns that if the government holds the authority to define liberties, it can become tyrannical.
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More from Lysander Spooner
It would also be making them consent to what they regard as the destruction of their own rights.
One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.
But there is no reason why a judge should have the power of punishing, for contempt, any more than for any other offence.
There is no more absurdity in giving a jury a veto upon the laws, than there is in giving a veto to each of these other tribunals.