Judicial Independence Quotes
This is a very important and fundamental quotation. Jefferson, John Adams, John Jay and many other Founding Fathers told us that the jury of peers was the final arbiter of a court case. However, many modern judges and legislatures have tried to erode that principle. In most states judges instructs juries that they are the final arbiter of the facts but he/she is the final arbiter of the law and how it should be applied in the case. But the founders wanted the jury to be the final arbiters of the law as well as the facts as is illustrated here and in {640588} and {640589}. For a more modern concurring view, see {640590}
In 1862 after a Sioux uprising, a U. S. military commission condemned 303 Indians to death. The President personally reviewed the records of each case and pardoned most. On December 26, 1862 the largest public execution in American history took place with 38 Indians hanged. Lincoln's decision to commute most of the sentences was not politically popular and in the 1864 election the Republican vote margin in Minnesota was smaller than before. Minnesota Senator Alexander Ramsey told Lincoln that he should have hanged more Indians and obtained a bigger majority.
Actually Adams had used the phrase in 1774 writing in the Massachusetts Gazette under the pseudonym Novanglus. See James Harrington related quotes for an earlier similar expression for which Adams is sometimes credited.
Jefferson, like most Presidents and ex-presidents, had his concerns about the judiciary and judicial checks, especially of the Executive Branch.
He was discussing the military criminal cases ongoing regarding the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees.
In 2002 the corrupt Indonesian Courts ruled that a very solvent Canadian company Manulife was bankrupt so that others could get control. The international financial and political community wanted the Indonesian government to intervene and reverse the rulings, but historically the courts had no independence and had been tools of the government.
The drafters of the Constitution were well aware of this view of Montesquieu’s which was one of the main bases of separation of powers and checks and balances in America.
