Court Opinion

ID: 9477110
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:14:09.101092+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:41.865832
License: Public Domain

ON REHEARING
MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting. For the reasons stated in my panel dissent, I would grant en bane rehearing on the “jury nullification” issue. The law is settled that the jury has the power to decide against the law and the facts. The jury specifically asked about its power to do so, and was told by the District Court that it had no such power. The least that the jury should have been told was “the jury has the power to bring in a verdict in the teeth of both law and facts ... the technical right, if it can be called so, to decide against the law and the facts.” Horning v. District of Columbia, 254 U.S. 135, 138-39, 41 S.Ct. 53, 54, 65 L.Ed. 185 (1920). These were the words of Justice Holmes speaking for the Court. The Supreme Court has never taken these words back or indicated that they do not properly state the law. The District Court and our Court are simply refusing to apply these words because they do not agree with them. It is not our prerogative to overrule the Supreme Court.