News from the liberterrain...
"God has put government in place according to his scripture." – Lawyer opposed to jury nullification.
Local jury rights advocates encountered what they called "a total apologist for government aggression and discrimination" during their most recent outreach event on Monday.
In the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, members of Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty - Tarrant County Meetup Group frequently take up position outside the Tarrant County Justice Center to hand out Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) brochures to prospective jurors.
They were about to leave after a successful day of passing out "close to 400 trifolds" when the encounter with the self-described Christian and licensed attorney began.
Tarrant County Campaign for Liberty members
encounter an attorney who "admits she would be willing
to enforce racial discrimination laws" during a FIJA
outreach event." (screenshot from YouTube video)
"Tom said something about judges not informing jurors of their rights to examine the law," Jason Oliver wrote in a mass emailing to the group's membership, "and the lady butted in and said that that was illegal for jurors to do."
"By that time," Jason continued, "I got my camera and asked if she would talk about it. That is when the video started rolling."
The woman's reasoning was clearly based on government-defined "rule of law" as an absolute.
For example, when asked if she would support a law today that still counted African-Americans as three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional representation as the Constitution originally provided, the self-described Christian replied, "Yes."
Her position was that "You are required to follow the law as defined" and if you don't you should be "prosecuted under the law for jury misconduct."
Then, if you don't like the law, "you go and change the law."
However, this was a conservative group, not Dallas area libertarians with an ironclad rejection of government's victimless "crime" laws that justifies jury nullification, so unfortunately the exchange with the dissenter was allowed to veer off course into religious discussions of Biblical morality.
This eventually led to her parting shot, "I hope one day you guys understand what rule of law means in a Christian nation which this is. I'm a Christian and I'm a licensed attorney. I do what I can under the law to obey the law."
In fairness, impromptu street-corner debate is seldom easy for anyone other than professional word-spinners like politicians, preachers, and lawyers, a point already taken by the FIJA activists.
"Communication and persuasion tips were something we were planning to discuss anyhow this Saturday afternoon," the Meetup email concludes, "so that is fortunate."
Lawyer Defends Racial Discrimination During FIJA Activism (YouTube video)
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Harsher treatment for FIJA folks from the
Libertarian News Examiner:
Comments
I really wish someone could explain to me how this could be a "Christian nation". The first four of the Ten Commandments would be illegal to enforce under the First Amendment. There are laws against murder and theft, and bearing false witness (but only under oath in a courtroom). The rest of the Commandments would require gross violations of privacy to enforce. Those that used to be laws, aren't any more.
So, 2.5 of the 10 are enshrined in law in the U.S.
Christian nation? I don't see how.
A useful tool for the State.
I have to admit once it went into the religious dialog I turned it off.
I wonder what the attorney would say regarding the following provision of the Texas Constitution enshrining that a Texas jury "shall have the right to determine the law and the facts,...."
"FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS; LIBEL. Every person shall be at liberty to speak, write or publish his opinions on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that privilege; and no law shall ever be passed curtailing the liberty of speech or of the press. In prosecutions for the publication of papers, investigating the conduct of officers, or men in public capacity, or when the matter published is proper for public information, the truth thereof may be given in evidence. And in all indictments for libels, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court, as in other cases." THE TEXAS CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 1. BILL OF RIGHTS, Section 8.
Fortunately, Garry, there are MANY of us who are christians and professionals who understand that God did NOT ordain human governments as this woman claims to believe, and that the only rule of law that christians are to support is that of God, who commands christians to judge rightly and as we ourselves would willingly be judged, the God who commanded prophets and apostles and everyday christians - even today - to stand up AGAINST rulers and judges and ANYONE who does evil. Human governments are "ordained" by God only insofar as they meet HIS standards, and that includes leaving punishment to Him. I more and more fail to see how any student of politics and society can claim to be a faithful christian AND anything other than a libertarian. Of course, the very fact that this woman is a lawyer is a strong indication that she has never understood, or has abandoned, her faith.
I agree that the law should be followed - the Texas Constitution, which gives jurors the Right to judge the law as well as the facts. Support for that Right is part of my campaign platform.
Jeff Daiell
Let me see if I get this right. If the people and government changed the law and now it's legal that Christians are slaves, she would unquestionably believe that a juror should be punished because they would not vote guilty on someone who helped a Christian escape slavery?
I'm unable to post the link but Google citizens rule book for further study.
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