On the record
The government has no more right to claim the ownership of wilderness lands, than it has to claim the ownership of the sunshine, the water, or the atmosphere.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “The government has no more right to claim the ownership of wilderness lands, than it has to claim the ownership of the…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner compares the government's claim over land to its claim over natural resources, arguing against such ownership.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
And the right is practically established only when and because the government, no longer exists to call it in question.
The people are no more arrayed against themselves, when a jury puts its veto upon a statute, which the other tribunals have sanctioned, than they are when the same veto is exercised by the representatives, the senate, the executive, or the…
That the legislation of the king was of no authority over a jury, is further proved by the oath taken by the kings at their coronation.
In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, and not by the jury.