In the Texas LP platform committee, and further in the State Convention, there seemed to be what seems to me a strange reluctance to embrace a demands for argument of all issues of law in the presence of the jury, together with providing them copies of all pleadings, and use of an adequate law library. I got arguments that the proposed plank was too complicated and needed to be simplified, while other far longer and more complicated planks were accepted with little discussion. I consider this reform, which is nothing more than a return to the standard of due process that prevailed during the Founding Era and for several decades thereafter, to be critical to everything libertarian reformers seek. It may seem radical to some people today, but it would certainly act to reduce or avoid many of the abuses libertarians complain about. I am not a reductionist who thinks some single reform alone will return us to some Jeffersonian-libertarian utopia. That will take a change in the political culture. But if we had to focus on one key reform that would do more with less expenditure of resources, and in particular with the resources available to us, and pave the way to all other reforms, that is it. The second key reform is to revive private criminal prosecutions.
A single precedent in a single court could start the reform going. Getting that one will not be easy. The Establishment has organized to block it. It would take strong publicity for the precedent, so that other juries would start refusing to convict anyone for anything unless or until all issues of law are argued in their presence. It is not enough to "inform" juries that they can "judge the law". At the level of information a simple statement to that effect would convey, they already know it. What is lacking is a detailed knowledge of the legal issues, so that they have the information they need to know how to judge the law. The mere knowledge that they have the power does nothing to inform their judgment of what the law is and is not, what it authorizes and does not, what it requires and does not. People aren't going to learn that without becoming greater legal historians than any but a few lawyers ever become, and few judges. In the kinds of cases that concern us, the legal issues are often not completely understood by the judge or any of the lawyers. It is a mutual learning experience, and they often get it wrong. We cannot trust judges to decide the law, especially not on certain subjects where the Establishment is determined to violate it. And we cannot expect lay jurors to suddenly become legal historians. What we can hope for is that if the opposing lawyers in cases know they can and must make legal arguments to the jury, enough of their arguments will penetrate and enable the jurors to see through the lies that judges and prosecutors will tell them about what the law is. If reformers are going to demand reform, it will not be sufficient to reduce a reform proposal to a level of simplicity below the bare minimum needed to include all the key elements, lacking any one of which, the entire reform will be easily and quickly undone. I get the impression that the reluctance arises from from deep reflection but from a failure to understand, and I am sincerely puzzled what I have failed to explain in the decade of messages I have been hammering people with over more than a decade. It cannot be that these arguments are new to the members of these lists, unless they are new to the lists. What do I need to do to explain or persuade? For more on this see http://www.constitution.org/lrev/jdr/mansfield_recon.htm -- Jon ---------------------------------------------------------------- Constitution Society 7793 Burnet Road #37, Austin, TX 78757 512/374-9585 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Check out the new improvements in Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/bmUd6C/fOaOAA/cUmLAA/KlSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
