Heicklen case: Free speech threatens “justice”

In an ongoing jury tampering case (libertarians call it a jury rights case) a government lawyer "vigorously defended the prosecution" of libertarian activist Julian Heicklen because his advocacy for jury nullification is a "significant threat" to the "integrity" of the judicial system.

Heicklen was charged with jury tampering for standing in front of the Manhattan courthouse and distributing Fully Informed Jury Association pamphlets that confirm a jury's right to judge the law as well as the facts.

According to an AP article, Assistant US Attorney Rebecca Mermelstein's position is that in this case Heicklen has no First Amendment free speech rights. "It's the content of the message that's undermining the fairness of the legal system in this courthouse," Mermelstein argued. "It's a significant threat." The judge has yet to rule.

Mermelstein's position, in short, is that Heicklen's free speech rights interfere with the American judicial system, a legalistic racket designed to reward the major players while reducing defendants to pawns.

On the government side, successfully prosecuting and imprisoning as many people as possible moves lifetime bureaucrats like Mermelstein up their career ladders and into position where they can vie for judgeships or run for political office, all at taxpayer expense.

On the defense side, court cases serve as Broadway stages for the lawyering classes where they can make headlines and photo ops and book deals and talk show appearances while simultaneously fattening their egos and their bank accounts.

Noting the "Golden Rule of Bureaucracies," as libertarians do, that all bureaucracies exist primarily to benefit those who run the bureaucracy, it's clear that Mermelstein is fighting to preserve the establishment's status quo insider judicial scam that used to be optimistically identified as "a search for justice."

Heicklen, for his part, had long worked toward instigating a jury trial that would force the legalcrats to argue the very concept of jury nullification in open court. Little surprise then that judge Kimba Wood moved early to preserve his own package of courtroom powers and privileges by denying a jury trial.

Mermelstein was right about one thing. Free speech is a "significant threat" to the establishment's legal game. As Darren Wolfe of the International Libertarian commented at the end of the Wall Street Journal article, "Of course the judges and prosecutors hate nullification. There might actually be some justice coming out of the "justice" system if people start practicing it!"

Original report here




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