Lysander Spooner: “It can do nothing except what all have consented that it may do.”

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…

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…

The presumption clearly is that all were eligible.

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