If a jury have not the right to judge between the government and those who disobey its laws, and resist its oppressions, the government is absolute, and the people, legally speaking are slaves.
Spooner asserts that if juries cannot judge government actions, then the government holds absolute power over the people.
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And nobody is bound to take the least notice of them, unless it be to trample them under foot, as usurpations.
They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.
It is also sheer impudence, on their part, to assume that their commands are at all necessary to teach other men what is, and what is not, justice.
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…