Before the Magna Carta, the King of England was the law. After, he was under the law. It created the principle of due process, habeas corpus protection from arbitrary arrest, and limited taxation without consent.
“Rule of law, jury trials, rights of the accused, limits on government, protection of property, accountability of leaders — all of that comes from the Magna Carta,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck explains on “The Glenn Beck Program.”
“That gave birth, 500 years later, to us and our ideas,” he says.
However, now all of that is changing.
“The birthplace of the Magna Carta is now thinking about getting rid of jury trials and arresting more than 12,000 people every year for what they call speech crimes — 12,000,” Glenn says.
“In 2023, Russia arrested 4,000 people for speech crimes against the Russian military for Ukraine — 4,000 in Russia, 12,000 in England. The number I saw, and we don’t have all the numbers, but the number I saw that were arrested for speech crimes in China was 120,” he continues.
“Not for violence, not for theft, not for treason — 12,000 in England for words,” he adds.
But it gets worse, as the prime minister is “floating the idea of eliminating” most jury trials.
“It’ll only be for murder, manslaughter, oh, and something else like that,” Glenn says.
“This goes against the Magna Carta, the lawful judgment of your peers. OK? That is the safeguard that stands between you and an out-of-control state. This is the first and ancient firewall against tyranny. It is what makes England, England,” he continues.
“And if England, of all places, tosses that aside, what does the word ‘free’ mean anymore? OK? What does it mean? You can’t speak, and you have no jury trial of your peers. Wait, what?” he says.
“First of all, understand this: A nation that polices speech is not free. A nation that dissolves juries is not just unfree; it’s prepping for something worse, because the entire architecture of the Western world, the liberty that we have, rests on a single radical belief,” he says, adding, “The truth does not need a king.”
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