But for their right to judge of the law, and the justice of the law, juries would be no protection to an accused person, even as to matters of fact; for, if the government can dictate to a jury any law whatever, in a criminal case, it can certainly dictate to them the laws of evidence.
Spooner emphasizes the essential role of juries in protecting the rights of the accused by judging both the law and its application.
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More from Lysander Spooner
They cannot claim or expect that the whole people shall practise the folly of taking on trust their pretended superior knowledge, and of committing blindly into their hands all their own interests, liberties, and rights, to be disposed of…
Therefore all their laws, as they call them,--that is, all the laws of their own making,--have no color of authority or obligation.
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.
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?