Sunday, March 28 2010 - 07:53 PM
Despotism of an Oligarchy - The demise of the right to trial by jury in the Antelope Valley
Judges act as the ultimate arbiters of almost all constitutional questions in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County’s North District. A very dangerous doctrine that has eviscerated the lives of countless residents in the High Desert area.

We are presently experiencing the serious erosion of this principle. The right of the jury to rule on the justice and constitutionality of the law, as well as the facts in the case, seriously undermined.

The jury today is a weak institution, as are all the other institutions designed to guarantee individual liberty. Prosecution in the administrative courts requires great sums of money for self-defense. Juries are not available, and one is considered guilty until proven
otherwise. Tragically, economic conditions usually prompt the businessman to pay the fine, regardless of its unfairness, to save legal costs. Fighting the system through political reform is not even a serious consideration. Those who would consider such a struggle are ridiculed as idealistic and unrealistic.

A powerful political action committee and a shrewd lobbyist are today considered the best investments. Since we have lived with massive
bureaucracy for over fifty years, most citizens, uneducated in the ways of equal rights, justice, and freedom, are unaware of another system.
By writing regulations with the force of law and administrative justice, interpretations, and enforcement of these laws, the judiciary “rulers" have made a mockery of Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution.

If the government can dictate the evidence, and require the jury to decide according to that evidence, it necessarily dictates the conclusion to which they must arrive. In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, not by the jury. The jury cannot try an issue unless they determine what evidence shall be admitted. Judging the moral intent and the constitutionality
of the law is no longer even a consideration of the jury. Today the judge instructs the jury to consider only the facts of the case, and
then he becomes the soul arbiter of evidence admissible in court. The ancient oath, it will be observed, says nothing about ‘according to the
evidence’.

The right effort could revitalize the jury and restore it to its rightful place in curtailing the endless growth of an all-powerful state. An awakened citizenry, participating in juries around the country, could bring about a nonviolent revolution of magnificent
proportions, reversing the sad trends experienced today.

- Our experiences and excerpts from Ron Paul’s essay: Freedom Under Siege, The US Constitution after 200 years.

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