Lysander Spooner: “It may probably be safely asserted that there are, at this day, no legal juries, either in England or America.”

What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?

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…

One answer is, that this power, which juries have of judging of the law, is not a power of absolute decision in all cases.

But there is no reason why a judge should have the power of punishing, for contempt, any more than for any other offence.