If the jurors were to judge of the law, and the justice of the law, there would be something like certainty in the administration of justice, and in the popular knowledge of the law, and men would govern themselves accordingly.
Spooner argues that if jurors could judge the law, it would lead to greater certainty in justice and legal understanding.
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But there is no reason why a judge should have the power of punishing, for contempt, any more than for any other offence.
They are every day committing errors, which would be crimes, but for their ignorance of the law.
It was simply, that they would neither convict the innocent, nor acquit the guilty.
What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?