This oath, then, is conclusive proof that his legislation was of no authority with a jury, and that they were under no obligation whatever to enforce it, unless it coincided with their own ideas of justice.
Spooner asserts that the oath taken by the king proves that juries are not obligated to enforce laws that contradict their sense of justice.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
All other laws, it is optional with each man to obey, or not, as he may choose.
In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, and not by the jury.
From the sale of that justice which every citizen has a right to demand, it was an easy transition to withhold or deny it.
The answer is, that they are as reliable for that purpose as are the majority; they are as much presumed to have associated, and are as likely to have associated, for that object, as are the majority; and they have as much interest in such…