Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2010-09-15 Sep 15, 2010The pages of history shine on instances of the jury's exercise of its prerogative to disregard instructions of the judge...~ U.S. vs. DoughertyTo render the magistrate a judge of truth, and engage his authority in the suppression of opinions, shews an inattention to the nature and designs of political liberty.~ Robert HallThe jury has the right to determine both the law and the facts.~ Samuel Chase Sep 14, 2010For more than six hundred years -- that is, since the Magna Carta in 1215 -- there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust, oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating or resisting the execution of such laws.~ Lysander SpoonerThe law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.~ Harlan F. StoneThe jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both law and fact.~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Sep 13, 2010Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance. Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom," it is a very serious consideration ... that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.~ Samuel AdamsThere is simply no escaping the fact that the fate of the Constitution is in our hands -- as voters, representatives, justices. If we allow ourselves to abuse the tradition of higher lawmaking, the very idea that the Constitution can be viewed as the culminating expression of a mobilized citizenry will disintegrate. After all, the American Republic is no more eternal than the Roman -- and it will come to an end when American citizens betray their Constitution’s fundamental ideals and aspirations so thoroughly that existing institutions merely parody the public meanings they formerly conveyed.~ Bruce AckermanFreedom may come quickly in robes of peace, or after ages of conflict and war; but come it will, and abide it will, so long as the principles by which it was acquired are held sacred.~ Edward Everett Sep 10, 2010Posterity -- you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.~ John Quincy AdamsIt is incorrect to think of liberty as synonymous with unrestrained action. Liberty does not and cannot include any action, regardless of sponsorship, which lessens the liberty of a single human being. To argue contrarily is to claim that liberty can be composed of liberty negations, patently absurd. Unrestraint carried to the point of impairing the liberty of others is the exercise of license, not liberty. To minimize the exercise of license is to maximize the area of liberty. Ideally, government would restrain license, not indulge in it; make it difficult, not easy; disgraceful, not popular. A government that does otherwise is licentious, not liberal.~ Leonard E. ReadWhen the government fears the people there is liberty; when the people fear the government there is tyranny.~ Thomas Jefferson Sep 9, 2010The people are Sovereign. ... at the Revolution, the sovereignty devolved on the people; and they are truly the sovereigns of the country, but they are sovereigns without subjects... with none to govern but themselves; the citizens of America are equal as fellow citizens, and as joint tenants in the sovereignty.~ John JayPrinces and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.~ Niccolo MachiavelliThe way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions in which he is competent ... - To let the National Government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations ... - The State Governments with the Civil Rights, Laws, Police and administration of what concerns the State generally. - The Counties with the local concerns, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these Republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations until it ends in the administration of everyman's farm by himself, by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.~ Thomas Jefferson Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print