If the judiciary can authoritatively dictate to a jury any exposition of the law, they can dictate to them the law itself, and such laws as they please; because laws are, in practice, one thing or another, according as they are expounded.
He warns that if the judiciary can dictate legal interpretations, it undermines the jury's independence.
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More from Lysander Spooner
In nearly or quite all the States of the United States the juries are illegal, for one or the other of the same reasons that make the juries in England illegal.
What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?
One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.
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…