"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."
--H.L. Mencken

As the handiwork of the 2007 General Session of the State of Utah's Legislature comes online, Utahns have until April 29th to find the exits, or prepare for the next assault upon civil society by the political class.

One tool used by the members of civil society to protect against institutionalized aggression is the jury, an assembly of citizens selected randomly to resolve disputes.

Is it time for juries to make a comeback in the defense of individual liberty?

Random acts of liberty

The classic film "12 Angry Men" dramatizes how one juror can save the citizen accused from being wrongfully convicted.

And because election-rigging Republicans and Democrats continue to cheat all Americans out of more competitive and representative means to choose lawmakers, randomly-selected jurors are among the few individuals who can stop the enforcement of an unjust law.

The Fully Informed Jury Association is one organization working to raise awareness of a juror's powers.

But what if a juror is unaware of his or her power to evaluate the law?

Statists who favor increasing limits on civil society's ability to question authority have worked diligently to create juries staffed by blinded obedients.

For example, in Utah in 2004 Reichsmarschall Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Doug Wright -- KSL Newsradio's "Sultan of Sanctimony" -- encouraged the Utah affiliate of the Party of Lincoln to amend its platform concerning the jury like so:

JURY
The jury is a fundamental institution of liberty, because it is the only anchor yet imagined by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. The jury has the right and the authority to acquit if jurors feel justice will be served, or the law itself is unjust in a particular case. Instructions to the jury should reflect this fact.

Their effort succeeded, and marked a significant shift away from a policy promoting limited government, and the sponsorship of fully-informed jury legislation by one Republican Utah legislator in 1996.

In response, the Libertarian Party of Utah adapted the language stricken by local Lincolnites, and added the following plank to its party platform:

Fully-Informed Juries: Jurors protect citizens from government excess. Jurors have the power to return a “not guilty” verdict if jurors believe that an acquittal will serve justice, the law itself is unjust, or the law is unjustly applied in a particular case. Instructions to jurors should inform them of this power.

Some Libertarian candidates even carried the message of jury powers during the 2006 campaign season.

Now that you're empowered with the knowledge of what a juror can do, what say you to your fellow women and men, potential future members of a jury?

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It's that time of year ... again.

As you begin to prepare your Utah income tax return for 2006, please remember to write an "L" in section 3 of Form TC-40 (PDF file). This does not change your refund or the amount of tax due. The Libertarian Party of Utah receives two dollars for every "L" entered, and these contributions are a major source of our funding.

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Call for petitions!

The weather is warming up. If you're gathering signatures, please turn in your petitions by April 26, 2007 so we can evaluate the progress of our petition drive.

You can download the PDF of the petition (click here), print it out, collect signatures from registered voters, and then return the petition forms to the offices listed below, or mail them to the organizing committee's post office box.

Libertarian Organizing Committee
P.O. Box 526025
Salt Lake City, Utah 84152-6025

W. Andrew McCullough, Esq.
6885 South State Street, Suite 200
Midvale, Utah 84047
(801) 565-0894

Rob Latham, Esq.
Cramer & Cramer, L.L.C.
845 South Main Street, Suite 23
Bountiful, Utah 84010
(801) 299-9999

Aric Cramer, Esq.
Cramer & Cramer, L.L.C.
90 East 100 South, Suite 201
St. George, Utah 84770
(435) 627-1565

We'll also have petitions for registered Utah voters to sign at the office locations listed above.

In the Files section of the LPUtahPetition Yahoo! group, you will also find the PDF file of the petition the Libertarian Organizing Committee is using for its reorganization.

URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LPUtahPetition/

For more information about the petitioning process, see Utah Code Annotated 20A-8-103.

Per the new policy of the State Elections Office, it will not accept petitions from us until the Libertarian Organizing Committee believes it has sufficient signatures.

Based on an anticipated invalidation rate of 20%, we have set a goal of collecting 2,500 signatures to meet the 2,000 signature threshold set by state law.

Please do not fill in the "Total," "Page," or "F.O. Signature" blanks at the bottom of the petition.

Bragging rights, and perhaps more, to the person who collects the most signatures. Thank you for your help to continue the campaign for liberty in Utah.

Yours in liberty,

Rob Latham, Chairman
Libertarian Party of Utah