But each written law, in order to be a law, must be taken only in some one definite and distinct sense; and that definite and distinct sense must be selected from the almost infinite variety of senses which its words are capable of.
Spooner states that a written law must be understood in a specific sense to be valid.
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More from Lysander Spooner
In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, and not by the jury.
It would be a solecism and absurdity in government to allow such consequences as these.
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.
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…